Police officer sacked for saying it's unfortunate coronavirus didn't kill more black people

Chief of police in Kaplan said Steven Aucoin commented under a local news station's live feed of the governor's coronavirus news conference on May 15, 2020.

CBS affiliate KLFY in Louisiana reported that Aucoin's post was made on its Facebook page in response to another commenter.

The commentator had written: "virus that was created to kill all the blacks is death."

Aucoin then responded: "Well, it did not work. How unfortunate."

The officer’s Facebook post triggered reactions among a section of the social media users who thought his comment was racist.

The police department said in a statement on its Facebook page apologizing and indicating that Steven Aucoin was relieved of his duties as a result of his Facebook post.

"Chief Hardy and the Kaplan Police Department would like to apologize for this matter," the statement said.

"As a police officer, we are held to a higher standard than normal civilians. So you got to watch what you do, you got to watch what you say," he told KLFY. "You cannot just go and post anything you want on social media."

The police officer is reported to have worked previously for the department for eight months and had been back on the force for about three months before he was let go.

He further noted that the entire Facebook thread was investigated. "There were some other comments further up that was also not suitable for a police officer to be putting on Facebook," Hardy said.

There had been 38,054 cases of the coronavirus reported in Louisiana as of Wednesday, May 27, morning, with at least 2,596 deaths, according to state health data.