Sign up for our special edition newsletter to get a daily update on the coronavirus pandemic.
A Florida police chief was placed on paid leave for allegedly suggesting that a sheriff’s deputy died from the coronavirus because he was gay, according to reports.
Davie Police Chief Dale Engle, 56, was put on leave as of Saturday “pending further review” of accusations made a day earlier by the state’s Fraternal Order of Police, the town announced in a statement.
In a letter sent to town officials, Mike Tucker, the chief of staff for Florida’s Fraternal Order of Police, alleged that several cops who expressed concerns of exposure to COVID-19 were “belittled” by Engle during a Tuesday patrol briefing just four days after the coronavirus death of 39-year-old Broward County Sheriff’s Deputy Shannon Bennett.
Engle proceeded to take the officers to a parking lot, where he yelled at them about their “baseless” concerns, Tucker wrote in the letter, a portion of which was published Sunday by the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The Miami Herald broke the story late Saturday.
“During this, members were shocked when Chief Engle cited the tragic death of BSO Deputy Shannon Bennett who recently succumbed to the covid-19 virus,” Tucker wrote.
“Chief Engle allegedly yelled about a ‘backstory’ which proclaimed that Deputy Bennett contracted and died from the virus because he was a ‘homosexual who attended homosexual [sexual] events.’”
Engle also suggested that Bennett’s “homosexual lifestyle” was how he contracted the virus that killed the school resource officer at Deerfield Beach Elementary, according to Tucker’s letter.
“His rant continued for some time, with the presumable desired effect of intimidating the members and discouraging any other department employees from complaining or expressing concerns in the future,” the letter continued.
Bennett, who was openly gay and planned to marry his partner later this year, died of the virus on April 3. He also had the underlying health condition of asthma, the Sun Sentinel reports.
Bennett’s partner, Jonathan Frey, told WPLG the pair were set to get hitched in December.
“The chief’s alleged comments are completely false, homophobic and slanderous,” Frey told the station in a statement. “I look forward to the fair and impartial investigation initiated by the town manager, and I hope that appropriate action will be taken at its conclusion.”
With Post wires
