A sergeant with the Racine Correctional Institution is being investigated because of his words, not his actions.
The sergeant allegedly made the comments on our TODAY'S TMJ4 Facebook page a little more than a month ago on January 29, 2018, while protesters were marching in response to two Racine Police officers shooting and Killing 26-year-old Donte Shannon.
The comments read “Run them all over!”
Another commenter realized who the man was and let him know superiors will be notified.
The Sergeant responded, “Good I’m sure they feel the same.”
Unfortunately for him, The Department of Corrections opened a disciplinary investigation and he was placed on paid administrative leave.
Corey Prince, a community leader in Racine organized the march in January. He was one of several who sent a complaint to the state.
“It definitely should not have been said,” Prince said. “For a person that has a job that works for the state of Wisconsin those comments were very incendiary.”
The DOC indicated they’ve referred the comments to the Racine County Sheriff’s Office for a criminal investigation.
This is the second case involving threats against the marchers. Last month a man named Brandon Spiller was charged with one count of terrorist threats for making comments under the same Facebook thread.
"Death to all protestors blocking traffic,” Spiller wrote. “Much rather run them over I read in some states it’s legal…"
“If someone is charged for saying one thing and someone says something that’s similar then they should also be charged in the same regard,” Prince said.
The sergeant has been working with the state since 2001 and with the Racine prison since 2013.
TODAY'S TMJ 4 reached out to the Racine County Sheriff’s Office for any updates about this investigation and they haven’t gotten back to us yet.
Once they do, we’ll keep you updated.
