Dilworth Police Chief Under Fire For Alleged Tweets

DILWORTH, Minn. (KVRR) – Tweets calling President Biden a terrorist have allegedly been sent by Dilworth Police Chief Ty Sharpe’s Twitter

account.

Sharpe denies sending them.

Tweets from the @LordTySharpe Twitter account, which is followed by Dilworth Police, sent messages this in response to CNN anchor Jim Scuitto’s message “Think about the lesson is the ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ crowd is teaching their children.” Let’s Go Brandon is code for insulting President Joe Biden.

In response to billionaire Elon Musk’s tweet of “Not one effing mask. Jesus Christ” his account tweeted a picture of President Joe Biden saying “Taliban employee of the month.” The account also calls Democratic Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar “The queen of incest.” It’s a reference to rumors in 2016 that Omar married her brother. She said at the time the claims are “absolutely false and ridiculous.”

“This chief really, I think, exemplified the worst form of professional leadership, but he also sided with the same people who bombed our mosque in Bloomington,” Executive Director for the Minnesota Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Jaylani Hussein said.

Hussein called the tweets about Biden and Omar “Islamophobic.”

On December 17th KVRR called Chief Sharpe about the tweets. He said “That’s not me” adding someone else must have sent the messages. Sharpe also said no one else has access to his account.

After getting off the phone, Sharpe’s account tweeted “This Twitter account has been hacked and I was just made aware that it is being used to tweet out statements that are not from me.” That tweet was deleted shortly afterward including every message on the account.

The same day I talked with Dilworth City Administrator Peyton Mastera. He asked me to send the tweets to him and I asked to interview Mayor Chad Olson. Mastera sent an email saying “Thank you for your email bringing this issue to our attention. Regarding your request to speak with Mayor Olson, the City of Dilworth does not have any additional information.”

On Monday I called Mastera asking if the city was going to investigate the tweets. He replied “I don’t have anything new for you.”

“Moorhead recently had a vandalism at the mosque. For a chief of a city like Dilworth, which we know there’s a number of Muslims that actually live in the city, and particularly from Moorhead, who live in Moorhead and shop at the Dilworth Walmart. So, I’m extremely troubled and I think it warrants an immediate firing,” Hussein said.

DFL State Representive Paul Marquart of Dilworth told KVRR “We should take the chief at his word that he’s been hacked” but the city should investigate the messages. He adds the type of divisive partisan rhetoric Sharpe’s Twitter account used “helps no one.”