RALEIGH, N.C. _ A North Carolina county leader is under fire for making an online comment that suggested lynching.
In response to a Facebook post about a Black man charged with killing a 5-year-old white child, one Facebook user reportedly wrote: "I got a rope," the Scotland County NAACP said Monday.
"I got a tree," Tim Ivey, a Scotland County commissioner, responded, according to screenshots obtained by organization.
The NAACP chapter said it reported a "grievance" to Scotland County commissioners and urged Ivey to apologize.
"Of particular concern is Mr. Ivey's implication that the accused person should not be tried and convicted; but rather, he should be sentenced to death without due process of law in much the same way that many people of color have been subjected to in our country," the NAACP said in its letter to commissioners.
Darius Sessoms, 25, is accused of fatally shooting Cannon Hinnant in Wilson, a city roughly 50 miles east of Raleigh, on Aug. 9. The case drew national attention as social media erupted with racist comments. Sessoms' mother said her son killed Cannon in "a drug-fueled haze," The News & Observer reported.
"At the time the post was made, I had no idea of the race of the person that committed the crime," Ivey said Wednesday in response to the NAACP. "My post was in response to the cold-blooded murder of an innocent child and the circumstances in which they occurred."
In its letter to commissioners, the NAACP said Scotland County, southwest of Raleigh along the South Carolina border, "is comprised of people with a variety of ethnicities, religions, socioeconomic status, and customs. It is expected that his public comments would reflect the sentiments of everyone he was elected to represent."
Ivey said he has made a similar post about the officer involved in the death of George Floyd and shared information about two other children who were killed, without receiving backlash.
"I stand behind my position, that all these murders should be dealt with equally and in the most heinous fashion as possible," he wrote Wednesday on Facebook. "We must send a very loud message that it will no longer be tolerated."
Some social media users seemed to agree with Ivey's stance.
"I stand with and support you tim I read what you wrote was no harm in it," one person wrote on Facebook.
But not everyone had the same reaction.
"He's got to go," another person commented.
