A Hamilton County assistant prosecutor has formally resigned after his social media posts about the killing of Charlie Kirk were flagged by a conservative-leaning X profile and then widely shared.
Ryan Nelson resigned in an email sent Friday, Sept. 26.
Nelson, 54, had been head of the office’s municipal court division. According to his resignation letter, he was placed on administrative leave on Sept. 15.
In the social media post, Nelson said that Kirk “essentially gave us all permission to shrug at his death, from his disbelief in human empathy to his stated views that suggest his death as a result of gun violence is a necessary price to pay for liberty.”
Nelson added that he felt empathy for Kirk’s children as well as Kirk’s parents, “because no matter how big of an (expletive) your child is, they are still *your child*.”
In his resignation letter, Nelson called it a private post that was “not intended to be shared with the general public.”
“A fair reading of it suggests that it was neither written to celebrate tragedy nor glorify criminal activity,” he said.
This story will be updated.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Hamilton County assistant prosecutor resigns after social media posts about Charlie Kirk
Reporting by Kevin Grasha, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
