Cop Who Mocked LGBTQ People After Teen Suicide Back on Streets

An Alabama cop who lost his job for mocking a gay teen's death now wears a uniform with a different police agency.

Deputy Jeff Graves resigned from the Madison County Sheriff's Office after he posted a Facebook message following 15-year-old Nigel Shelby's death by suicide.

Graves made his comments on a Hunntsville news station's post about the teen's passing.

"Liberty, Guns, Bible, Trump, BBQ. That's my kind of LGBTQ movement," Graves wrote in a now-deleted post. "I'm seriously offended there is such a thing such as the movement. Society cannot and should not accept this behavior," Graves wrote at the time.

The comment was deleted but preserved forever online.

The words prompted bosses to immediately put him on administrative leave, and he ultimately quit.

But Graves now works at the Owens Cross Roads Police Department, within Madison County. He started on Monday.

"Everyone deserves a second chance," Owens Cross Roads Police Chief Jason Dobbins told WHNT News 19.

Dobbins told local news his department proudly serves all citizens, including the LGBTQ community that was mocked in the wake of the loss of a young member.

He separately praised Graves to another station.

"He's an officer here. We feel he will be a good addition to the department," he told WAAY 31 ABC.

But the officer does plan to monitor via bodycam Graves' interactions with the public. The chief told the news station Graves expressed regret over his online remarks.

Nigel Shelby's death drew national attention, especially after a touching message posted online by his mother Camika Shelby.

She most recently said through attorneys that the school knew her son was considering suicide but chose not to act.

"After my son passed, I learned that he had several discussions about homosexuality with school administrators and was told that being gay was a choice," she said in a statement.

"I was never contacted by the school and informed that my son was struggling with his sexual identity and regularly having discussions with a school administrator."