FARGO – A heated online debate about a police shooting has landed a Fargo cop in trouble after he apparently told someone on Facebook to “do us all a favor and hang urself.”

Officer Zach Messmer is under investigation by the Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards due to the comment, Lt. Mike Mitchell said Tuesday.

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On Monday night, WDAY-TV posted a story on Facebook about the shooting of a man by police in Grand Forks on Saturday.

One commenter, writing under the name Darryl Danielson, demanded that police release more details of the shooting and wrote, in part, that, “UND Cops will shoot at anyone they please,” referring to the University of North Dakota police.

In response, Messmer apparently wrote: “Darryl ….u should do us all a favor and hang urself?”

Danielson posted a screenshot of Messmer’s comment on WDAY’s Facebook page, saying, “So I was just told by a Fargo Police Department officer to kill myself.”

Mitchell, the police spokesman, declined to describe what rules, if any, limit officers’ free speech online.

He also said internal investigations can vary in length from two to 30 days, “depending on the complexity of it.”