One Facebook comment cost a Kansas police officer his job. The threatening comment was entered on a stranger’s picture thousands of miles away in Texas.
Lanaydra Williams received a notification Thursday from a name she was not familiar with—Rodney Lee Smith. Williams lives in Dallas and Smith at the time was an Overland Park, KS officer. She told a local FOX affiliate in Kansas that he commented on a picture of her daughter from two years ago writing, “We’ll see how much her life matters soon.. better be careful leaving your info open where she can be found 🙂 hold her close tonight, it’ll be the last time.”
Unclear of why the officer targeted her from his personal page, Williams made it clear that she had no previous ties to him or Kansas. She was especially disturbed by the comment in light of the deadly shootings of officers in Dallas. After looking on Smith’s page and seeing his employer, she contacted the Overland Park police department, who initially responded by saying Smith’s page had been hacked. Williams refused to believe their excuse.
An internal investigation began, with Smith being terminated the next day.
While it was never made clear how Smith found Williams’ profile, FOX 4 confirms that Williams’ profile picture was an image of a “person dressed in black holding a knife to a police officer’s throat”. Facebook deleted her account. Despite being thousands of miles away, Williams fears Smith will now retaliate against her and her 5-year-old daughter. Right now, she says her priority is protecting her daughter, India.
“Maybe I’ll just say he was one bad cop. Not all of them are like that. I don’t think she’ll think they’re all like that either way. She loves police,” Williams said.
The police chief issued a public apology on the department’s Facebook page.
Williams says the chief also called to personally apologize.
