New York: Rensselaer County Police Officers Tyler Sammon and Matt Spath accused of deliberately chasing and exhausting groundhog and then running over and killing it

NEW YORK -- Two police officers are accused of ruthlessly chasing down a groundhog with their golf course and running over it.

The officers, who work with the Rensselaer police department in upstate New York, were suspended with pay on Friday pending an investigation over an incident at a Troy golf club which the chief of police says has 'humiliated' him.

The officers have been identified by Rensselaer Chief of Police Rick Fusco as Tyler Sammon and Matt Spath, according to News 10.

The incident took place during a police union's golf tournament at the Frear Park Golf Course in the city of Troy last Friday. There were at least 80 officers participating in the tournament.

Authorities say witnesses saw the men chase down the critter and deliberately run over it, killing it.

'When you're talking about harming an innocent animal, this is embarrassing,' Fusco said. 'I'm humiliated.'

Fusco said he will attempt to fire both officers if an investigation finds them guilty.

'Things in this country, with police officers right now, are not good. You have an innocent animal killed by a police officer, it's a perfect storm. I understand the outrage and I support the outrage because if this happened, I'm outraged myself,' he told WNYT .

'They're police officers if they did this and intentionally ran over an animal and killed it, that's disturbing to me.'

Sammon has been an officer for three years and Spath for eight, reported the outlet.

Troy City Council President Carmella Mantello said the city has zero tolerance for that behavior, according to TWC News.

Rensselaer Chief of Police Rick Fusco

Fusco admitted that the incident came to the department's attention from Facebook, when a witness from Troy posted it as a status and others began copying the status to the Rensselaer County police department's inactive page.

The original status, which read:

'While playing Frear Park golf course today, I witnessed two people in a golf cart chase down a woodchuck until it couldn't run anymore and then they ran over it with their golf cart.'

'The woodchuck managed to crawl about ten feet and rolled around a little before it died. I later learned that the two people were police officers from the City of Rensselaer, playing in a golf tournament. To the both of you: you guys must really feel good about yourselves, killing an innocent animal. To make it worse, there was a baby woodchuck nearby on hole number 12 probably wondering where it's mother was.'

Outrage followed the posts.

'Haha... put on administrative leave ...That is a joke!...They should be fired immediately!!!!!!!!' wrote one person.

'Someone with a sadistic streak like this has no business in a career of protecting and serving,' wrote another.

(Daily Mail - Aug 6, 2016)

Earlier:

• New York: Authorities investigating reports that two police officers used a golf cart to purposely run over and kill a groundhog