Florida Sheriff Cries Foul Over Opening Day Tweet By Rays Team

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri is crying foul over an opening-day tweet by the Tampa Bay Rays that was meant to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

"Today is opening day, which means it's a great day to arrest the killers of Breonna Taylor," the Rays tweeted July 24, referring to the Louisville, Kentucky, police officers who shot 26-year-old Breonna Taylor while attempting to serve a no-knock search warrant at what turned out to be the wrong address.

Gualtieri told the Tampa Bay Times he personally called Rays President Matt Silverman over the weekend to discuss his concerns over the tweet.

“To turn a baseball event into a political event is uncalled for,” Gualtieri told the paper. “It’s just wrong, and it’s improper. It’s just reckless. It’s throwing gasoline on the fire, and it didn’t need to happen.”

Gualtieri said the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office may balk at future traffic control and security details at Tropicana Field, although the St. Petersburg Police Department generally provides such services.

Gualtieri told the Times his deputies guard the stadium room where concession money is kept and sometimes provide other protections.

Silverman claimed in the Times article that the tweet was not authorized by upper management.

Chief Anthony Holloway of the St. Petersburg Police Department told the Times he was also "very concerned" about the tweet and "disagreed with its characterization of the officers" who were involved.

The outlet reported Holloway had a long discussion with the Rays organization about the tweet but said the tweet will not impact their commitment as a professional agency to provide a secure environment for fans at future Rays games.

"It's inappropriate for the team to opine on the Taylor case, which has drawn national scrutiny, when team officials 'don’t know all the facts,'" Gualtieri told the Times.

On March 13, officers with the Louisville Metro Police Department burst into Breonna Taylor's Louisville home using a no-knock warrant during a March 13 narcotics investigation, and they shot her eight times, the Louisville Patch reported. The warrant to search her home was for a suspect who did not live there, and no drugs were found inside.

In June, the Louisville Metro Police Department announced it fired Officer Brett Hankison. In a termination letter sent to Hankison, the agency said Hankison violated procedures by showing "extreme indifference to the value of human life" when he "wantonly and blindly" shot 10 rounds of gunfire into Taylor's apartment in March. The letter also said Hankison, who is white, violated the rule against using deadly force.

Oprah Winfrey, Beyonce and protesters around the nation have called for further action in the case.

The most recent published Oprah Magazine features the face of Taylor on the cover. And last month, Beyonce sent a letter to Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, saying all three Louisville police officers "must be held accountable for their actions."

Beyonce's letter states: "Your office has both the power and the responsibility to bring justice to Breonna Taylor, and demonstrate the value of a Black woman's life."