A Raleigh officer investigated after a post on his social media account called Juneteenth “a made-up holiday” was suspended in September before retiring earlier this month, according to recently released public documents.
Daniel Twiddy, a member of the Raleigh police department since 2009, was suspended on Sept. 4, according to the documents, which don’t explain why or for how long. The 38-year-old senior officer retired on Dec. 1, the documents say.
North Carolina law severely restricts what information can be shared about officers and other government employees. It’s unclear if the suspension, which was not announced to the public, was linked to a temporary post on Twiddy’s Instagram in June.
The officer was considered controversial by some before that. Families and civil rights activists have been critical of Twiddy since he shot and killed 24-year-old Akiel Denkins in Southeast Raleigh in 2016.
Twiddy contended that Denkins reached for his gun, and District Attorney Lorrin Freeman concluded that Twiddy was justified in shooting Denkins four times while arresting him for failure to appear in court on a felony drug charge.