Hopedale Police say transphobic Facebook post result of hack

A Facebook post on the Hopedale Police Department’s page, including transphobic language and purporting to detail an officer-involved shooting in a women’s restroom was the result of a hack that locked the department out of its own page, the department’s chief said Wednesday.

The post, posted late Tuesday night, claimed that a “Deputy Michael” had “fired 47 shots into” a suspect the post described as a “woman” who flashed police with male genitalia.

Hopedale Police Chief Mark Giovanella said the message was clearly “designed to cause shock and alarm in the community.” No one at the department posted the message, he said, and the department has been locked out of the account and unable to have the message removed.