Sheriff's deputy under fire for controversial tweets about Diamond Reynolds

RICE COUNTY, Minn. (KMSP) - A Rice County Sheriff's deputy is under fire after sending a controversial tweet in regards to the settlement money Philando Castile's girlfriend will receive.

Tuesday, St. Anthony voted to hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars to Diamond Reynolds whose boyfriend, Philando Castile, was shot and killed in an officer-involved shooting. Just hours later, a Rice County Sheriff's Deputy Tom McBroom posted a few tweets on the matter.

Fox 9 has confirmed with the Rice County Sheriff's Office McBroom posted the following: "She'll have that spent in 6 months on crack cocaine...I hope she loses all her state and county aid now she has this cash."

Fox 9 reached Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn by phone who learned about the insensitive tweets Wednesday evening.

“I just want to say the comments don’t reflect the beliefs or opinions of anybody here at the Sheriff’s Office in our administration or patrol,” said Dunn.

McBroom has been a Rice County Sheriff's deputy for 12 years. He's since been taken off patrol. The sheriff says he's never heard racist comments before from McBroom.

“I’ve not ever seen anything like that from him before, no,” said Dunn.

McBroom deleted his Twitter account, but he's still up on the Elysian City Council website as one of their council members.

Reynolds will receive $800,000 in total as part of a settlement from St. Anthony and two other groups. She was in the car when a St. Anthony police officer shot and killed Castile. Her young daughter was in the backseat at the time. Reynolds live streamed the aftermath of the shooting on Facebook Live.

Fox 9 reached out to Reynolds' attorney, but he did not have any comment on the tweets. The Rice County Sheriff would not disclose any further the disciplinary action, if any, he would take against McBroom. Neither McBroom or the mayor in Elysian returned our calls.