Erie officer under investigation after post suggesting shooting ICE agents

The latest: The officer, identified as Haili Shimko by the Erie Police Department, was placed on paid administrative leave Jan. 25 — standard procedure pending the outcome of the investigation, Deputy Chief Heather Carmosino told Axios Boulder.

• Carmosino declined to discuss the post or the investigation's scope, citing that it is a personnel matter.

Driving the news: Libs of TikTok, a right-wing political account, posted Wednesday what it said was a screengrab of a Facebook comment from an account using the officer's name that read, "they wear armor so headshots would work better."

• While Libs of TikTok claimed the comment referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency is not named in the visible portion of the post. A later comment shown in the screengrab references protests.

Caveat: Axios Boulder could not independently verify the post or the ownership of the account, as the Facebook profile appearing to belong to Shimko is not entirely public.

In a Wednesday response to the Libs of Tik Tok post, Erie PD wrote: "Employee use of social media and public commentary is governed by policy and directives. Staff are expected to comply with police department directives and town social media policies."

What we're watching: Erie police officials did not say when the ongoing investigation might conclude.