CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. — A group is calling for the resignation of the Cumberland County District Attorney, after a comment about a recent police shooting he made on Facebook.
The post, which refers to Jacob Blake, the Wisconsin man who was shot in the back 7 times by a police officer, drew the following response from Cumberland County District Attorney, Skip Ebert: "What was the 'father's' criminal record? What was he being arrested for? Why was he unable to comply with police requests?"
Ebert went on to explain what he meant. "I was responding to a very negative post about police," he said. "And I was simply trying to tell people, why not get the investigation completed?"
The post doesn't mention anything about bad-mouthing police. Ebert said he was just explaining due process in the justice system. But that's not how the comment came across, according to Cumberland County Democratic Committee Spokesperson, Colleen Ngyuen.
"It definitely came across that he was trying to justify the shooting of a person in the back by a police officer who is not a jury," Ngyuen said.
Ebert told FOX43 he would never justify shooting an innocent man in the back. And though he's calling the incident and backlash "politically charged," he said he did take the post down.
"I probably should've been more aware of, given the climate of the times in the United States," Ebert said. "Nothing good was going to come of it anyway."
Regardless, the Cumberland County Democratic Committee is calling for his resignation. Ebert said he has no plans to step down.
"This entire incident has nothing to do with my ability to be fair," Ebert said. "Go through my record. I have prosecuted police officers who have done illegal acts."
"It doesn't matter how good of a DA he has been so far," Nguyen said. "If this is in his brain, this is how he's thinking. He doesn't seem to think that this is scary for members of this community. It's not okay."