MIAMI — A Florida police chief has been replaced after a police union said he berated his officers and told them that a sheriff’s deputy had died from the coronavirus because he was a “homosexual who attended homosexual events.”

Dale Engle, the police chief in Davie, Fla., a town of 106,000 residents west of Fort Lauderdale, was placed on administrative leave on April 11 “pending further review of allegations brought forward by the Fraternal Order of Police,” the town administrator, Richard J. Lemack, said in a statement.

Mr. Lemack added that “the allegations will be investigated in accordance with the Town’s Equal Employment Opportunity compliance policy by outside counsel.”

On Thursday, Mr. Lemack appointed Patrick Lynn, the former police chief in Davie, as acting chief.

Mr. Lynn served as the chief for almost 10 years before he retired in 2017. He has “the institutional knowledge of the agency, the community, along with the requisite leadership skills to provide interim guidance and support,” Mr. Lemack said.