A US prison officer has been suspended for allegedly saying a 5-year-old who was recently fatally shot "should've ducked".
Cannon Hinnant was shot in the head while playing with his siblings in the driveway of his family home in North Carolina on August 9.
Next door neighbour Darius Sessoms, 25, has since been arrested on first-degree murder charges, NBC News reported.
In a since deleted Facebook post, New Jersey juvenile detention centre officer Rome Smith said that Hinnant's parents were to blame for his death.
"He should've ducked FOH. Y'all always trying to sneak diss and discredit a black person being killed innocently by police. Blame cannon's parents for not watching him!!! F Y'ALL," Smith, who is black, allegedly wrote.
Cumberland County officials condemned the post in a statement, calling the comments "shockingly insensitive and racist in tone".
"We will not tolerate county employees using social media to broadcast hateful messages," Cumberland County Freeholder Director Joseph Derella said, NBC News reported.
"This is not who we are and we intend to pursue the strongest action available to us."
They confirmed the post has since been deleted, and Smith's social media appears to have been disabled.
On Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the county, Jody Hirata, confirmed that Smith has been suspended over the post.
Over $800,000 has so far been raised through a GoFundMe page set up for Hinnant's family. The target of the page was $5000.
