An officer from the San Antonio Police Department in Texas has been fired for allegedly attempting to feed a dog-excrement sandwich to a homeless man.
My San Antonio reports that the incident occurred in May when the officer reportedly placed fecal matter between two pieces of bread and gave it to a homeless person in a Styrofoam container.
The incident was reported to internal affairs in July, which led to an investigation and the effective firing of Matthew Luckhurst, a five-year veteran of the department. Luckhurst was assigned to SAPD’s downtown bike-patrol unit for the last year.
“This was a vile and disgusting act that violates our guiding principles of ‘treating all with integrity, compassion, fairness and respect,’ Chief William McManus said in a prepared 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. The action of this one former officer in no way reflects the actions of all the other good men and women who respectfully serve this community.”
McManus and two boards consisting of citizens and police officers have all agreed on indefinite suspension for the officer, who plans to appeal the decision.
“Firing this officer was the right thing to do,” Mayor Ivy Taylor said in a statement to the San Antonio Express-News. “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 attorney said that his client joked about giving an excrement sandwich to a homeless person but never actually did so. “It didn’t happen,” said Ben Sifuentes. “There are no eyewitnesses or video recordings and no statement from the homeless person,” the lawyer said.
Police Department officials have been unable to locate the homeless man.
The SAPD was under fire recently for another incident. In September, 23 uniformed police officers, including six supervisors, were disciplined for being photographed at the San Antonio International Airport wearing red caps with the slogan “Make America great again,” the calling card of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Read more at My San Antonio.