Shively police officer mocks Charlottesville crash that killed woman protesting Nazis

A Shively police officer was yanked off the streets Monday because he posted a meme on Facebook mocking the death of a woman killed after a vehicle rammed into a protest against a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Videos from the "Unite the Right" rally on Saturday showed a 2010 Dodge Challenger barreling into pedestrians at high speed. Heather Heyer, 32, was killed and more than a dozen others were injured.

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As the Courier-Journal first reported, Shively Officer Morris Rinehardt shared a picture of the car's mangled front end on Facebook with a caption over it reading, "When you were born a Challenger but identify as a Ram." He also added "LMFAO" — laughing my f---ing ass off — in the comments of another user's post of a fake advertisement that the vehicle was for sale that said, "Minor front end damage. Nothing serious."

Shively Lt. Col. Josh Myers said Monday that Rinehardt has been placed on paid administrative leave. He said city officials, including Mayor Sherry Conner and police Chief Kevin Higdon, saw the posts and immediately called for an internal investigation.

"Obviously the Shively Police Department does not condone any activity both on or off duty that shows any kind of indifference to human life," Myers said.

Rinehardt shut down his Facebook page on Monday morning after the Courier-Journal contacted the department.

Rinehardt has been with the police department for two years and has no commendations or disciplinary infractions on his personnel file. He previously served as a deputy with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.

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Myers said Shively police, which has roughly three-dozen sworn officers, is taking the matter seriously. He said the mayor and chief were unhappy about the postings but hope it was an isolated incident.

"Trust that we are going to look into this and do what is necessary," Myers said. "Behavior of this nature by any of our employees, police officer or otherwise, will not be tolerated."

Shively City Councilman Wendell Vincent said the officer's post on Facebook was troubling. "It sounds like it was probably a not-too-well-thought-out and ill-advised attempt at humor, which was more insensitive than it was funny," he said.

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The vehicle that rammed into the demonstrators is alleged to have been driven by James Fields Jr., 20, who is being held on suspicion of second-degree murder, malicious wounding and failure to stop in an accident that resulted in death.

Fields was raised in Kentucky. A former high school teacher said Fields' political views were "along the party lines of the neo-Nazi movement." A judge denied bail for Fields at his hearing on Monday.

Heyer, a legal assistant, was described by friends and family as someone who spoke out against racism. "I always encouraged her to be strong and strong-minded, even though that wasn't always easy to raise," her mother, Susan Bro, told NBC News. "But I was always proud of what she was doing."

Outcries over the white supremacists' rally have been nationwide, including denunciations by local elected officials and activists.

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Louisville Metro Council members and others gathered in Jefferson Square Park on Sunday to proclaim the incident an act of domestic terrorism.

Mayor Greg Fischer, who was out of town this weekend, echoed that sentiment in a statement Sunday saying that he was deeply troubled by the events.

"Wherever there is hatred, oppression, bigotry, or injustice for any — black, white, brown; Christian, Muslim, Jew — against any of us, I will speak out and condemn this unacceptable domestic terrorism," he said.

Hundreds of people gathered at the Carl Braden Center in western Louisville at a rally hosted by the local Black Lives Matter movement. Several people there spoke out against the incident before marching eastward along Broadway carrying signs decrying Nazism.

The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the car attack, and FBI Director Christopher Wray said Monday it meets the definition of domestic terrorism.

USA Today contributed to this report. Reporter Phillip M. Bailey can be reached 502-582-4475 or pbailey@courier-journal.