INDIANAPOLIS–An IMPD officer caught making an inappropriate remark on a Facebook live video that captured the sound of Sean Reed being shot is “remorseful for his actions,” says IMPD Chief Randal Taylor.
In an interview with WISH-TV Tuesday morning, Taylor said he spoke with the officer soon after the incident happened. The officer was heard saying, “It’s going to be a closed casket homie,” after Reed was shot and killed.
“It was uncalled for, but I did have a discussion with that officer and he was remorseful. But I still felt it warranted a multiple-day suspension as well as reassigning him to a different unit in order to send a message,” Taylor said. The officer was responding to the scene and was not the officer who killed Reed, says Taylor.
Taylor was asked if he considered firing that officer.
“I would have a hard time convincing a merit board that’s what had to happen. If an officer speaks poorly, typically, that might be something as little as a reprimand or a day. I felt this was more serious than that. After speaking with him, I thought the discipline I chose was just,” Taylor said.
He says the department is in the early stages of the investigation of the Sean Reed shooting. Reed was killed by an IMPD officer on May 6. Taylor says it won’t be long before the department gets body cameras.
“The goal is to get them out around July-August. We’ll fit 1,100 (officers) initially,” Taylor said.
