Twitter On Friday the official Twitter account of the Marine Corps Special Operation Command posted a joke about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., urging it’s followers not to be a “lone shooter†over the holiday weekend. Dr. King was assassinated by a gunman in 1968. On Friday the official Twitter account of the Marine Corps Special Operations Command posted a picture and message that appeared to make light of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the start of the long holiday weekend to commemorate his birth.
The Tweet contained a picture of a gunman taking aim through what appeared to be an open window and a message that read, “Don’t be a lone shooter MLK weekend! Make sure you’ve got security â€" stay safe!â€
The civil rights leader was assassinated by a gunman on April 4, 1968, as he stood on a balcony at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tenn. James Earl Ray confessed to the murder in March 1969 and spent the rest of his life in prison.
The Tweet was posted to Twitter at 10:52 a.m. Friday and subsequently deleted from the MARSOC official account, @MARSOCofficial, which is linked to the recruitment page of the Marine Corps website.
On Friday afternoon, the account tweeted an apology and explained that the original message was intended only to, “remind personnel to partner up when going out over the weekend and to look out for each other using military jargon.â€
