Mississippi sheriff’s deputy fired over social media comments about George Floyd death

Published 9:11 pm Friday, May 29, 2020

A Mississippi sheriff announced Friday that he’d fired a deputy in his department over the deputy’s comments regarding the case of a Minnesota man who died while police were arresting him.

“Last night the Jones County Sheriff’s Department was made aware of a Facebook post by a member of our department regarding the tragic death of George Floyd,” the sheriff’s office wrote on Facebook.

George Floyd died Monday as police were arresting him in Minneapolis. A video of the incident shows a police officer holding his knee on Floyd’s neck as Floyd begs for help and complains he could not breathe. He eventually went limp as the officer continued pressing his knee on his throat. Floyd died in the incident and the officer was arrested Friday and charged with murder.

Subscribe to our free email newsletter

Get the latest news sent to your inbox

“We do not in any way condone or agree with the post. The individual who made the post is no longer employed by our agency.”

“We apologize for the hurt caused by this individual’s action which we had no advance notice of or control over. However, the situation has been dealt with and to restate – this individual is no longer employed by the Jones County Sheriff’s Department.”

The deputy was identified by the Laurel Leader-Call newspaper as Hilmon James “Catfish” Gainey.

Gainey worked at the Jones County Adult Detention Center, the newspaper reported.

Gainey’s post included (with errors as he typed it): “If he can scream he can breath, something else was going on. I’ve been pepper sprayed with CS gas and it messes with your breathing but you can definitely still breath.”