An assistant police chief agreed to resign in Estherwood, Louisiana, after he shared a racist meme to Facebook, according to Fox affiliate KADN in Lafayette on Wednesday.

The officer, Wayne Welsh, posted a cartoon Sunday that depicted a mother drowning a child in a bathtub accompanied by the text, “When your daughters (sic) first crush is a little Negro boy.” The post was removed, but other social media users were able to collect screen grabs before it was taken down.

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At first, Welsh tried to defend his actions with a follow-up post on Facebook.

“It's not against the law to share something on Facebook. It's social media. Internet,” he wrote, according to KATC, the ABC affiliate in Denham Springs, Louisiana. “I shared somebody else's posts and everybody mad at me again. So Facebook police mad at me.”

After the initial defiance, Welsh appeared to become more contrite later Sunday.

“Well, I posted something on Facebook that made a lot of people mad,” said the officer online. “Well, I'm sorry for what happened. Ya (sic) have a blessed day.”

Estherwood Police Chief Ernest Villejoin was shocked when he saw the post.

“When I found out about it, I couldn’t believe I had to call him. I called him at work and asked him what the hell is going on,” Villejoin told KADN. “How’d this come out, I don’t know. This I don’t really understand it (to) start off with. He done it. He said it and he realized what he had done after he done it and he deleted it, but it was too late.”

Despite making plans to resign, Welsh doesn’t seem to feel that he should have to.

“I just don’t feel like I should have to resign on this because there is not a policy saying I can’t do this on Facebook,” said Welsh to KADN Wednesday. “To me, I’m not racist and I knew it wasn’t. It was a picture that everybody shared and you can get on … and still see it. It’s still there, but I was wrong for sharing it for being a police officer … I treat everybody the same and you can ask anybody in town if you walk around. They all like me and I do my job right.”

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Villejoin offered an apology for the officer to anyone the post offended.

“I know Wayne didn’t do this on purpose. He didn’t do this offend anybody,” said Villejoin.

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