INDIANAPOLIS – A detective with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department who was overheard on video making a remark about the decedent in an officer involved shooting (OIS) needing a “closed casket” has been suspended, authorities said.
The unnamed detective was recorded saying: “I think it’s going to be a closed casket, homie,” referring to Dreasjon Reed, who was fatally shot following a vehicle pursuit in the city on May 6, NBC News reported.
Reed streamed the encounter on Facebook Live.
IMPD Chief Randal Taylor has described the comment as “unacceptable.”
The detective received a suspension of numerous days and has been reassigned to another unit, Officer Genae Cook, a spokeswoman for the department told NBC News on Friday. “Numerous days” was not quantified.
Cook said that the identities of the officer involved in the shooting and the detective who made the inappropriate comment would not be released due to safety concerns. However, both officers are African American, as was Reed, according to the report.
The officer’s remark was recorded on a Facebook Live stream that Reed began during the police chase, WTHR reported. The video has been removed from Facebook but was uploaded to other social media and online platforms.
A police spokesman said a weapon was recovered at the scene of the shooting.
Detectives are investigating at least 26 threats made against officers following the fatal shootings of Reed and another man, McHale Rose, 19, who was killed by officers at an apartment complex hours later, Cook said. Police have said both Reed and Rose exchanged gunfire with officers.
