WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Louisiana News, Weather, Sports

Memphis Police Department is investigating a disturbing photo that surfaced Friday on social media.

The photo shows two children duct taped at their hands and mouth. The picture is captioned, “Kids for sale, 45% cause they bad.”

The picture was posted by Facebook user Jaton Justsilly Jaibabi, who has since deactivated the account.

In addition to MPD, other state departments are also investigating the photo.

In the photo you can see tears in the oldest child’s eyes.

“That’s wrong. That’s no joke. It’s nothing to play with. I find it offensive,” a Trezevant High School student that lives nearby said

MPD said they opened an investigation after we sent them the photo Thursday night.

The Tennessee Department of Children’s Services said they have very limited information, but they are doing more research before investigating the family.

“I could not breathe. It took my breathe away; caused extreme emotional distress. These are children. These are human beings,” a parent said.

Although many parents are outraged at the photo, the woman’s cousin, Derion King, said this was just a practical joke.

His message reads, in part, “Basically a joke at the moment that people just went overboard about. People make mistakes and that’s what this situation is, a lesson learned. They are safe, unharmed, and loved. That’s all it is to it.”