A Westchester fire lieutenant was suspended without pay for a post on his Instagram account that officials said praised the gunman who killed five police officers in Dallas earlier this year.
Mount Vernon Fire Lt. Omar Lanier could also be fired from the department for the post on his account on July 7, the day of the Dallas shootings. The post has since been deleted.
“Everybody understands that this is something that we, as a department and a city, are not going to tolerate," Mount Vernon Fire Commissioner Ernest Richardson told the Journal News, which first reported Lanier's suspension.
An attorney for Lanier, who has been with the department for 9 years and was promoted in the spring, told NBC 4 New York that he hadn't gotten the chance to talk with his client yet.
He added, "People should not rush to conclusions."
The Journal News reports that Lanier's future with the department will be determined in a hearing in the future.
