Firefighter: Charleston Comments Misinterpreted

MABANK — The East Texas firefighter who lost his job after a Facebook post says the post was taken out of context. Kurtis Cook says his comment about the Charleston church shooting was in reference to someone else’s comment. The former Mabank volunteer firefighter wrote, “He needs to be praised for the good deed he has done” on a South Carolina newspaper’s Facebook page about a story on the shooting. Cook says there was a person who posted about donating a large sum of money to the victims — and he was saying that person deserved praise, not accused shooter Dylann Roof. A screenshot that went viral doesn’t show any of the comments above Cook’s comment. Cook has since deleted his Facebook account.