A white Ohio police officer was fired after writing on Facebook that the suicide of a Black Lives Matter activist was a “happy ending.”
According to The Columbus Dispatch, social justice activist MarShawn McCarrel II fatally shot himself on the footsteps of the Ohio statehouse on February 8.
McCarrel had helped organize an effort to feed the homeless as a teen, worked as a youth mentor and helped with local protests after high-profile police shootings led to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Just hours before McCarrel took his life, the 23-year-old activist posted on Facebook “my demons won today. I’m sorry.”
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“He just wanted to serve people,” his twin brother, MarQuan McCarrel, told the newspaper following his brother’s death.
WATCH: MarShawn McCarrel was a Black Lives Matter activist and started a youth and anti-homelessness program
According to WDTN-TV Dayton News, an off-duty cop with the Fairborn Police Department took to Facebook and commented on the death of the Black Lives Matter activist.
“Love a happy ending,” Officer Lee Cyr wrote on the Ohio Politics Facebook page.
Cyr was placed on paid leave pending an investigation, the news channel reported. The officer was fired on Monday.
“This action is in violation of the department’s social media policy and does not conform to the Professional Standards and Core Values established by the organization,” the police department said in a statement to WDTN-TV.
–with a file from The Associated Press
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