A San Jose Police Department employee is facing weapons charges following the discovery of disturbing and hateful social media posts.
San Jose Police Chief Anthony Mata confirmed his department was informed by the FBI last Thursday that one of its own unsworn employees, Denis Shevchenko, had made multiple posts on an alt-right social media page allegedly advocating for the murder of police officers.
"These posts encouraged and solicited violent acts against people who did not share the extreme views of the author of the posts and included advocating for shooting police officers," Mata said during a press conference.
The FBI revelation led to a search warrant and the arrest of Shevchenko on Oct. 14 as well as the seizure of multiple firearms, including a gun found in Shevchenko’s duty locker that he was not authorized to carry on the job.
Previous to the arrest, Shevchenko worked as a Community Service Officer at the department.
"This incident is unfortunate and I am extremely disappointed that an employee in our organization has harbored and spread these hateful messages," Mata said.
The police department stepped up its screening of new recruits for extreme ideologies last year.
Shevchenko is now facing weapons charges. He was not immediately reachable to provide comment to KCBS Radio.
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