Around 50,000 Baton Rouge police records were exposed as part of a cyber-attack allegedly carried out in retaliation for the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alton Sterling, the Daily Dot reported.
"The reason i did it is because of what that officer did to [Sterling]," said the person who claimed responsibility for the hack. "I'm sick of seeing police abuse their power and all the killings."
The hacker, who goes by the name "0x2Taylor" online, first announced his actions on Twitter on Thursday morning, addressing the Baton Rouge Police Department on Twitter and saying, "Your security f*cking sucks."
While officials said that they "have not been able to confirm" a breach of the department's security, the Dot reported that it was confirmed by analyst Jamie-Luke Woodruff, who works for the British cybersecurity firm Patch Penguin and also spoke to the hacker to corroborate his claims.
The records exposed by Taylor reportedly include officers' names, phone numbers, email addresses, and addresses.
Sterling was shot and killed after being pinned to the ground by two officers, Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake, during a confrontation on Monday in front of a local convenience store. Video published by The Daily Beast on Wednesday shows that, contrary to officials' account, Sterling was not holding a gun when he was killed.
