Fire chief apologizes for saying Black people will 'eventually kill each other' without cops

The chief of a volunteer fire department in Lancaster County, South Carolina is apologizing after saying that Black people will eventually all murder one another without police around.

Local news station WSOC-TV reports that McDonald Green Volunteer Fire Department Chief Butch Ghent recently went on Facebook and implored local police to stop responding to calls from Black neighborhoods.

"Dear police, Stop responding to these Black neighborhoods," he wrote. "They will eventually kill each other, and the fake news won't have a story."

Wayne Murray, the head of the Lancaster County chapter of the NAACP, slammed Ghent's racist remarks and said that people of color should worry about his willingness to help them if they face a fire emergency.

"I wonder how long it's gonna take them to get to my house to put out the fire," Murray said. "When we have our leaders bringing racism into the city, we have a serious problem."

When contacted at his house by WSOC-TV, Ghent apologized for the post, which he admitted was a "stupid" thing for him to write.

"Sometimes you just do stupid stuff, and I did a stupid thing," he said. "I just want to apologize to the Black community of Lancaster and all the areas that might have read this thing. I didn't mean it as an attack on them, but I was after the news media more than anything else."