Two newspaper staffers have been fired after attributing a false quote to a local sheriff.

In a piece that ran in The News-Enterprise, Hardin County Sheriff John Ward is said to have told a reporter that most police 'have a desire to shoot minorities.'

Sheriff Ward immediately went public saying that he would never make such a comment and was 'pranked,' and an internal investigation revealed that two members of the staff added the line to the story while it was being fact checked.

It is believed one added the line as a joke, and the second failed to notice the line had been added while proofreading, and the story went to print with the mistake.

Scroll down for video

Bad press: In a piece that ran in The News-Enterprise, Hardin County Sheriff John Ward (above) is said to have told a reporter that most police 'have a desire to shoot minorities'

Unacceptable: An internal investigation revealed that two members of the staff added the line (above) to the story while it was being fact checked

Anna Taylor, the reporter who wrote the story, had nothing to do with the very insensitive 'prank' as Ward referred to it.

'I've had many calls, emails, Facebook messages, supporting me from people that know I wouldn't have made such a comment,' Ward told WAVE.

The paper's editor, Ben Sheroan, posted a column about the incident on Thursday.

'No reasonable excuse exists for the horrible mistake that occurred Thursday in The News-Enterprise,' he wrote.

'A retraction and apology has been printed Friday on Page A1. As community members and neighbors, we feel it is important to repeat this apology again publicly to Sheriff John Ward, the entire law enforcement community and to you, our readers.'

All good: Reporter Anna Taylor (above) did not have anything to do with the change in the story

He then revealed, 'Many of Thursday's upset callers asked the same question:“Doesn't anyone proof your newspaper?”'

'Well, surprisingly that's where the error took place. A function and process designed to rid the news pages of error instead added a terrible one that altered the reporter's original sentence. No reasonable excuse can exist.'