A police officer in Kaplan, Louisiana has been fired after publicly lamenting that all Black people hadn't been killed by COVID-19.

The officer, Steven Aucoin, wrote the racist comment on a live Facebook chat with Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards.

After one user commented, "Virus that was created to kill all the blacks is death," Aucoin replied, "Well it didn't work." He followed up with a separate comment: "How unfortunate."

Kaplan's police chief Joshua Hardy said Aucoin's launched an investigation into his comments and then announced his termination on May 15. "We're held to a higher standard than normal civilians, so you got to watch what you do, you got to watch what you say," Hardy said. "You can't just go and post anything you want on social media."

After some suggested Aucoin's comments were taken out of context due to the way Facebook prioritizes their visibility, Hardy said that the department investigated the comment thread entirely. He concluded, "There were some comments that were further up that was not suitable for a police officer to put up on Facebook."

See the Kaplan Police Department's announcement of Aucoin's termination, below: