Authorities in Lee County, Fla., have fired Jean Lopez, a former deputy sheriff who reportedly referred to a black man as a monkey on his Facebook page, NBC2 reports.
According to an investigation by the Lee County Sheriff's Office internal-affairs unit, Lopez posted a video on his Facebook page that showed a black man talking negatively about his company and his competitors and using expletives and slang. Lopez captioned the video, "Can someone please tell me what the [f—k] this monkey is saying?"
Lopez also allegedly posted, "Get a real life f—king monkey."
Lopez insisted that he and his friends use the word "monkey" to refer to someone they consider stupid, implying that his use of the word carried with it none of the racial connotations usually associated with its use in relation to black people.
Florida authorities aren't buying it.
"It's not acceptable, and that's why he's out of a job," Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott said.
This isn't Lopez's first time being investigated at work. According to NBC2, Lopez was involved in a 2014 shooting that was the subject of an investigation; he reportedly mishandled a suspect's money in 2008; and in that same year he was “arrested but not charged for threatening to kill his wife,” according to NBC2.
Read more at NBC2.