A North Miami Beach Police officer who was reassigned after posts on social media that appeared to question whether the Parkland school shooting was a hoax has been suspended, according to police records released Tuesday.
Officer Ericson Harrell will serve a 40-hour suspension and will have a letter of reprimand placed in his file following an internal affairs investigation, records showed. The suspension comes with a loss of $1,500 in salary.
The records said Harrell, in multiple Facebook posts on his personal page, questioned the narrative of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that claimed 17 lives.
"ALL PAID ACTORS / ACTRESSES!! #2NDAMENDMENT #SHALLNOTBEINFRINGED #ARMOURTEACHERS" read a March 22 post that accompanied a NBC News story about some of the shooting survivors on the Cover of Time magazine.
"What proof do you have? What evidence do you have, that anyone was killed other than #MSM accounts, alleged witnesses and a couple of funeral processions? #StonemanDouglas #SandyHook" read another post from March 29.
Investigators said Harrell's postings "created negative attention to himself as a North Miami Beach Police Officer, as well as to his employing agency," the records noted. "Officer Harrell's social media posts were considered inflammatory and offensive to the families of the victims, survivors and the public."
Harrell had been placed on administrative duty with pay in April, when the investigation began.
