A Washington teenager committed suicide Sunday after a local sheriff's department published a sarcastic Facebook post about him, according to multiple reports.
The Latah County Sheriff's Office in Idaho had posted a photo of 19-year-old Pullman, Wash., resident Andrew Cain alongside a message saying, “We have decided that Andrew Cain is no longer the Wanted Person of the Week… he is the Wanted Person of the Month of June. Congratulations!," according to local CBS affiliate KREM-TV.
A few days later, Cain took his own life.
Whitman County Coroner Pete Martin told the Moscow-Pullman Daily News that Cain had suffered from depression "and a number of problems."
Latah County Sheriff Wayne Rausch sent his condolences to Cain's family and said that it wasn't appropriate to editorialize the Facebook message about Cain, according to KREM-TV. But Rausch also said he stood by the decision to post to Facebook about someone who has a warrant out for his arrest, adding "that [Cain] felt it necessary to end his life over facing consequences is tragic."
Cain's sister, Alise Smith, said on Facebook Tuesday evening that no one from the Sheriff's Office has yet apologized to her family.
Smith, who reportedly doesn't blame the Sheriff's Office for her brother's death, said that the same sheriff's deputy who made the Facebook post had also sent Cain a private message, saying, "If you turn yourself in, I'll give you a copy of the wanted poster," according to the Daily News.
"That's what was upsetting was that they were privately messaging him and harassing him," Smith said.
The Latah County Sheriff's Office told HuffPost there were three warrants out for Cain: one for driving without privileges and one for possession of a controlled substance. The Sheriff's Office was unable to say what the third warrant was for.
The sarcastic Facebook post about Cain has been removed from the Latah County Sheriff's Facebook page, but similar posts remain.