Okaloosa County Sheriff Larry Ashley told a group of Democrats on Thursday night that he believes the Black Lives Matter movement is a terrorist organization.

The remarks did not go over well.

“I walked out. Everybody’s jaws just dropped,” said John Whitley, the elected Democratic State Committeeman for Okaloosa County. “It was so out of left field. It shocked and surprised the group that he would compare Black Lives Matter to al-Qaeda and ISIS.”

Ashley had not been invited to address the Hootenanny Social Club, which had arranged for Republican state House candidate Armand Izzo to speak, Whitley said.

The sheriff, a Republican serving since 2010, was offered the opportunity to speak as a courtesy, Whitley said. And it was Whitley who asked Ashley if he was “in any way empathetic towards the Black Lives Matter movement?”

“He said, ‘No. The Black Lives Matter movement is a terrorist organization,’ ” Whitley recalled.

Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Michele Nicholson directed all requests for comment to Ashley or to the Ashley for Sheriff Campaign.

Several attempts to reach the sheriff and his campaign staff Friday were unsuccessful.

Nicholson confirmed that Ashley was at work Friday, but spent the afternoon “in a meeting.”

Clara Oates, one of just a handful of African Americans in the room for the Hootenanny Social Club gathering, said Ashley’s comments “really disturbed me.”

“I don’t know if he’s correct or not,” Oates said. “I don’t believe they started out to be terrorists. It started because police were killing people and not being held accountable for it. The group started to demand justice.”

Oates said after Ashley made his comments she asked him what criteria he was using to label Black Lives Matter a terrorist group.

“He just said, ‘They’re a terrorist group,’ ” she said.

But Lawrence Kelley, who was also in attendance, said he had heard Ashley claim Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization “because it advocated the killing of police officers.”

“Who at Black Lives Matter advocated killing police officers?” Kelley asked rhetorically.

The Okaloosa County Democratic Executive Committee issued a statement Friday afternoon critical of Ashley’s comments.

“We have never, do not now, nor will we ever condone what some view as an example of a blatant demonstration of bigotry by any elected official or candidate regardless of political affiliation/party — regardless of forum,” Committee Chairman Richard Rian is quoted in the statement as saying.

Kelley speculated that perhaps Ashley spoke the way he did to the Hootenanny’s because he thought he was playing to a favorable audience of predominantly “older white people.”

“He got no one’s vote,” Kelley said.