A sheriff’s deputy assigned to assist with the aftermath of mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, has been fired for public drunkenness while off duty.
Deputy Christopher Lofton, a two-year veteran of the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Department, was one of eight deputies and two dispatchers sent to relieve Uvalde first responders after the massacre at Robb Elementary School, the department .
On June 4, a couple weeks after the massacre, Lofton got intoxicated in his temporary living quarters in Uvalde and became drunk ‘to the point that he was a danger to himself and others’, according to investigators. He was arrested by Uvalde County local law enforcement for public intoxication due to his ‘erratic behavior’.
Lofton was immediately removed from his assignment in Uvalde.
The Brazoria County Sheriff’s Department found him to have ‘violated multiple department policies’, and was fired on June 8.
‘Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office is committed to holding our employees in the high standards our community demands and expects,’ the department stated.
Deputy Lofton’s conduct was ‘not consistent with this Department’s mission and should not minimize the outstanding work other good men and women have done and continue to do for the grieving community of Uvalde, Texas’, according to department officials.
The department did not provide further details on the events leading up to Lofton’s alleged intoxication.
Lofton’s arrest and dismissal comes as law enforcement face intense scrutiny for their conduct responding to the mass shooting.
A Robb Elementary School teacher who survived the massacre that the police had ‘no excuse for their actions’. Meanwhile, the has already announced a review of law enforcement conduct during the shooting.
But Uvalde’s embattled police chief Pete Arrodondo on Friday, stating that his officers never ‘hesitated, even for a moment, to put themselves at risk’.
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