State suspends, seeks to fire prison guard who mocked Tops shooting victims

The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said it was seeking to terminate the employee, who was not identified in a series of department tweets.

Early this morning, DOCCS had been made aware of a despicable social media post by an employee of the Department. The comments made by this correction officer are in violation of multiple Department rules and will not be tolerated.

— NYS DOCCS (@NYSDOCCS) May 17, 2022

However, screengrabs that circulated widely online indicated the meme was initially shared by someone named Greg Foster.

State payroll records show a Gregory C. Foster II is a corrections officer at the Attica Correctional Facility, earning $185,482 in 2020.

The offensive meme shows a photo of a Tops Markets above the words, "Clean up on aisle 3, no wait 4, also on 7, 9, 12 and 13."

Foster punctuated the meme with the comment, "Too soon? This should weed out some FB friends," followed by a laughing emoji.

A white supremacist is accused of driving more than 200 miles from the Southern Tier to Buffalo to kill as many Black people as possible in Buffalo. Ten people died and three others were injured in the supermarket attack.

The meme spurred outrage, particularly as it became apparent the person who shared it was a corrections officer.

In a series of tweets Tuesday afternoon, DOCCS said it was launching an investigation into the meme and would seek further discipline of department employees who engaged with the post.

"The comments made by this correction officer are in violation of multiple department rules and will not be tolerated," the department wrote. "This vile posting does not represent the morals and values of the thousands of staff members in the department."