Nashville Police Officer Fired For Facebook Post On Philando Castile Shooting

NASHVILLE, TN — A Metro police officer who made an inflammatory Facebook post in the wake of a July Minnesota officer-involved shooting was fired Wednesday.

On July 7, 2016, Anthony Venable, a Hermitage Precinct officer, posted in Facebook comment thread about Philando Castile, who was shot during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights, Minn. the day before.

"Yeah. I would have done 5," Venable wrote. Castile was shot four times.

Venable was immediately put on desk duty pending an investigation, ordered decommissioned by Chief of Police Steve Anderson and had his gun and badge collected.

In a letter notifying him of his charges, Venable was repeatedly excoriated by Anderson, who picked apart the now-former officer's various lines of defense.

During the investigation, Venable apparently claimed that he made the posting on his own Facebook page, which did not identify him as a Metro officer, though Anderson noted that it was easy enough for numerous media outlets to confirm that he was indeed employed by MNPD within hours of the post.

Referencing three other postings in the same comment thread in which Venable declared he was "trained by the best," "...you don't shoot just one. If I use my weapon, I shoot to kill and end threat"; and "He (Castile) had a gun AND weed in the car. These [sic] officer will be fine," Anderson took Venable to task.

"It can be agreed that you were trained by the best. If the staff of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department Training Academy is not the best in the nation, it is among the best," the chief wrote. "In that this training also includes responsible, acceptable and unacceptable use of social media, it is clear that you intentionally elected to ignore the training and directives you have received by issuing publications to the World Wide Web in contradiction to the training you received. ... If you were trained to shoot to kill, you did not receive this training from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. ...

"You also commented that since Mr. Castile had a gun and 'weed' in the car, the officer would be 'fine'," the letter says later. "As a trained law enforcement officer you should be aware that having a gun and 'weed' in the car should not be justification for the use of deadly force."

Apparently, Venable argued that he was being sarcastic and that his sarcasm was apparent, but Anderson disagreed, noting that officers should not be flip about the shooting deaths of civilians in any event, but that no sarcasm was apparent.

"It should be noted that nowhere in these social media postings did you give any indication that you were less than serious," the chief wrote. "No emoji, no 'lol,' or other social media jargon was employed were employed to make it clear that your inflammatory remarks were to be taken as anything less than serious."

Anderson's letter was issued February 2, setting a February 15 hearing date, and he makes eerily prescient comments about the disparaging light Venable put on the department and the difficulties that could arise in future use-of-force situations given Venable's cavalier attitude. Venable's termination hearing came, of course, just days following the shooting death of Jocques Clemmons in Cayce Homes by a MNPD officer, though this is just coincidental, given that the hearing was set nearly two weeks before Clemmons' death.

The hearing was conducted by Deputy Chief Todd Henry. Venable can appeal his termination to the Civil Service Commission.

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Image via Metro Nashville Police