Coronavirus: Florida police chief suspended for saying officer died from Covid-19 because he was gay
'He should be stripped of his rank for making such divisive comments that do not reflect the inclusive values of America's law enforcement'
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Your support makes all the difference.A Florida police chief has been suspended for allegedly saying a deputy died from Covid-19 because he was gay.
Davie Police Chief Dale Engle allegedly said Broward Sherrif's Office Deputy Shannon Bennet contracted and died from the virus because he was "a homosexual who attended homosexual events", according to a complaint from the Florida State Lodge Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council Committee.
Mr Bennet, 39, died on April 3. At a patrol meeting on April 7, Mr Engle allegedly berated several Davie officers who raised concerns about protection from Covid-19 while on duty.
In response to those concerns, Chief Engel allegedly yelled a backstory claiming Mr Bennett was a victim of the virus due to his sexual orientation.
"He intimated that it was because of the homosexual lifestyle that Deputy Bennett first contracted a serious underlying disease which aggravated the Covid-19 virus and lead to his death," the complaint said.
Davie Town Administrator Richard Lemack issued a statement on Saturday saying Chief Engle was placed on administrative leave pending further review of the allegations.
"The allegations will be investigated in accordance with the Town's Equal Employment Opportunity compliance policy by outside counsel," Mr Lemack said in the statement.
"The Town will have no further comment until the investigation is completed to protect the integrity of all involved."
Florida's Fraternal Order of Police Chief of Staff Mike Tucker told The Independent in a statement that they support Mr Engle's right to due process and a full investigation. Officers believe the comments were an attempt to "minimise the concerns they had, the dangers they were facing, by using Deputy Bennett as an example".
"We hope that at the end of the day a full investigation would reveal and determine that maybe this was perhaps a huge and terrible misunderstanding or some sort of terrible miscommunication," Mr Tucker said.
"But, if true and remarks were made to somehow correlate the sexual orientation of deputy Bennet to his passing from Covid-19, it's something that remains confusing for us and frankly would be inappropriate at best and at worst discriminatory and absolutely unacceptable, and obviously warrants an investigation so we can get clarity as to why the chief thought that was relevant to brief his members on."
The order is seeking an external investigation from a third party due to fears an internal investigation would not be impartial.
The complaint alleges that Mr Engle sent an email after the incident in an attempt to walk back the comments, saying they were "taken out of context" and were an attempt to "provide as much information as possible".
The National Fraternal Order of Police said in a statement on Twitter that Mr Engle should be stripped of his rank if the allegations are proven true.
"If these allegations are true, the disgusting insinuation made by Chief Engle is not becoming of the badge he wears," the statement said. "He should be stripped of his rank for making such divisive comments that do not reflect the inclusive values of America's law enforcement."
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