Just in case you needed to lose more faith in humanity today, an investigative report revealed two sheriff’s deputies were disciplined for sharing news about comedian Bob Saget’s death before his family was notified.
According to a Fox News report Sunday, Orange County, Florida, deputies Emiliano Silva and Steven Reed both texted news about the “Full House” star’s passing before his loved ones even knew he was gone.
Saget died on Jan. 9 in an Orlando hotel room after a performance.
Authorities concluded head trauma killed the actor and comedian, The Associated Press reported, with the fractures around Saget’s eye sockets and brain bleeding potentially caused by hitting the back of his head on “something hard, covered by something soft,” like the carpeted floor of his hotel room.
According to the New York Post, Saget also had COVID-19 at the time.
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Saget had been found unresponsive after he failed to check out of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Jan. 9 and his family had asked for a well-being check on the 65-year-old.
However, between the time when Saget was found unresponsive and his family was informed he had passed, Silva — one of the first officers on the scene — sent a text message to his brother, telling him the comedian was dead, Fox reported.
His brother, rather unwisely, decided to tweet the news that Saget had died.
Should these deputies have been punished?
About 40 minutes later, someone showed the deputy a screenshot of the tweet, according to the report.
“He had urged his brother to delete the tweet, but by that time, several media outlets had begun to ask about Saget’s death,” Fox News noted.
Meanwhile, Reed had been informed of the death by another colleague and texted two of his neighbors, who had been to one of Saget’s recent shows.
That text, again, came before Saget’s family had been notified — although it was unclear whether the neighbor publicized the news.
However, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said they were flooded with inquiries from the media about Saget’s death before his wife, Kelly Rizzo, was informed.
The report said the two deputies violated the sheriff department’s information-sharing policies and had accepted disciplinary agreements via what’s known as the “Discipline Dispute Resolution Process.”
Those agreements weren’t shared with the media, however.
News of the investigation broke on the same day Saget’s daughter Lara went viral for sharing a heartfelt tribute to her dad on Instagram for Father’s Day.
“My dad wasn’t just my dad, he was my best friend,” she wrote. “He wore his heart. He didn’t hide it; he wasn’t afraid of love.”
“I have noticed how scary it can be to love that big, to open so fully. It can be easier to be angry, fearful, negative.,” she added. “Maybe because love has an infinite quality, it is boundless.”
“My dad simply wanted to share laughter and love with this world.”
And these two deputies, apparently, couldn’t wait to share his death with the world. Nice work. Let’s hope the coincidental timing of these two stories reminds everyone — in particular these two callous law-enforcement officers — that behind every celebrity lies a human life worthy of enough dignity and respect that their family doesn’t have to risk discovering that they’ve passed on because of someone’s careless, ill-considered, unfeeling tweet.
