Police officer fired for giving ‘fecal sandwich’ to homeless person

The officer bragged about it to a colleague and was fired

Luckhurst was fired week after the incident escalated through the police's chain of command (San Antonio Police Department)

A Texas police officer has been fired after he allegedly bragged to a colleague about making a fecal sandwich and giving it to a homeless person.

San Antonio officer Matthew Luckhurst was on bike patrol in May when he put feces between two pieces of bread in a styrofoam container and placed it beside a homeless man who was asleep, as reported by MySanAntonio.com

The five-year police veteran told his colleague, who reported him in July. Police said they tried and failed to find the man in question and launched an internal investigation.

His department fired the officer last week and rushed to say his action did not reflect the 2,300-member department.

"This was a vile and disgusting act that violates our guiding principles of ‘treating all with integrity, compassion, fairness and respect,’ " police chief William McManus said in a statement.

"The fact that his fellow officers were so disgusted with his actions that they reported him to internal affairs demonstrates that this type of behavior will never be tolerated."

Mayor Ivy Taylor added: "Firing this officer was the right thing to do. His actions were a betrayal of every value we have in our community, and he is not representative of our great police force."

Luckhurst’s lawyer, Ben Sifuentes, told The Washington Post that his client had only joked about the incident and had not actually placed the item beside the homeless man.

"Just because [chief] William McManus says something happened doesn’t mean it’s true," he said.

According to a city report on homelessness, the number of homeless people has increased by 26 per cent in the year to December 2015.