Updated: July 7 at 2:38 p.m.

A firefighter from a Foggy Bottom fire station is under investigation after posting statements on Facebook calling for gun violence against police officers.

Norman Brooks, who has worked for D.C. Fire and EMS for nine years and is stationed at Engine 23 on GW’s campus, posted that individuals should protect themselves with guns from “racist cops,” Fox 5 reported Wednesday. He wrote multiple Facebook posts after the fatal police shooting of 37-year-old Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La. Tuesday.

“It’s time to stop praying, stop protesting, start buying guns and start protecting ourselves from these crooked [expletive] racist cops,” Brooks wrote in one of the posts.

D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman Doug Buchanan told Fox 5 that the agency learned of Brooks’ comments Wednesday from D.C. police officers. The agency is conducting an internal review of Brooks in addition to the law enforcement investigation, Buchanan said.

Brooks has been placed on “administrative duty” until the investigation is complete, Buchanan said.

Brooks later defended his statements, saying they were a “reaction to a horrific event,” but that he did not intend to offend people with his comments.

“Maybe I used strong language, but that is just what it is,” Brooks told Fox 5. “All I am saying is that I am a man reacting to the horrific things that are happening to my people in this country. I have no ill will to police officers.”