HILLSDALE, Mo. (AP) - A St. Louis County prosecutor says his office will no longer take cases from a suburban St. Louis police officer who posted offensive comments on Facebook regarding the May 25 police-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The Hillsdale officer could be fired over the comments, St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Tuesday. Bell said the comments included the officer’s belief that “if you’re speaking, you’re breathing.”
Floyd had repeatedly called out that he couldn’t breathe as one Minneapolis officer pressed a knee into Floyd’s neck and two other officers helped hold Floyd down for nearly nine minutes.
Bell declined to name the officer who made the online comments, but said he told Hillsdale Police Chief John Bernsen that his office planned to examine the officer’s cases and would not take new cases from him.
“We have to be comfortable with the officers that we’re dealing with are credible, truthful and when we take an officer before a jury, we’re vouching for that officer,” Bell said.
Bernsen said the officer has been suspended, Bell said.
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