SPD Officer Placed on Leave and Under Investigation Following Facebook Post

A Shreveport police officer has been placed on administrative leave and is currently under investigation following a controversial Facebook post.

If you've been on Facebook at all lately, you have probably seen the viral Facebook post made by Shreveport police officer Sgt. Brent Mason. In the post, Mason shared his opinion on the death of George Floyd. According to the post, he has been with SPD for 25 years, as well as training officers for the last 12 years.

In the now-viral post, Mason writes, "This is a common mistake and poor technique often made by Police Officers. The knee is not suppose to go across the nap of the neck." He continues by saying, "The knee has to angled across shoulder blades during handcuffing."

Later in the post, he writes, "This was a mistake or misstep, but not an act of murder." Also, he adds, "Minneapolis Police Dept. Jumped the gun by arresting and firing the 4 officers."

The post has since been deleted, but you can see the screenshot below.

It wasn't deleted before screenshots of the post began making the rounds around social media, causing the post to certainly go viral on a regional level.

Shortly after the post went viral, Shreveport Police Department issued the following statement:

The views expressed by individual officers on their personal social media accounts do not reflect the views or values of the Shreveport Police Department.

Any posts thought to be in violation of City policies will be investigated.

ArkLaTex Homepage is reporting that Chief Ben Raymond cannot comment directly in regard to Sgt. Brent Mason at this time, because such comment would "violate the officer's bill of rights in the administrative investigation."