A Texas police officer, who first lost his job in 2016 after giving a homeless man a feces sandwich, has been fired by a second Texan police department, reports said.
The San Antonio police department indefinitely released Matthew Luckhurst after a separate incident in 2016. He was later hired by the police department in Floresville, Texas, local outlet KSAT reported.
The city’s mayor said there had been an outpouring of emails from locals who were unhappy Luckhurst had been re-employed as a police officer.
Mayor Cissy Gonzalez-Dippel said in a statement: “Matthew Luckhurst was released from employment with the Floresville Police Department yesterday, Dec. 13th.”
“Our city manager, Andy Joslin, is implementing stricter hiring policies for all city of Floresville employees. He is also working with Chief Herrera on the Reserve program.”
Luckhurst was first terminated by the San Antonio police in 2016 after an internal investigation determined that he placed feces between slices of bread and gave it to a homeless man while on duty, according to KSAT.
The police officer won an appeal over the feces sandwich incident due to a local government code that prevents officers from being disciplined for conduct occurring over 180 days ago, the outlet reported.
He was later given a second indefinite suspension following an investigation into a separate incident in which he allegedly failed to flush feces down a toilet in the women’s restroom at the downtown bike patrol office and spread a “brown tapioca-like substance” on the seat.
Luckhurst took responsibility for the toilet incident but said it was a prank and apologized: “In hindsight, it was immature,” he said at a hearing, per KSAT.
However, he did not win his appeal against the toilet incident. The arbitrator assigned to the case decided that SAPD Chief William McManus was justified in terminating him, citing the “egregious nature of Luckhurst’s conduct aimed at women.”
