Georgia sheriff apologizes after breastfeeding incident

A Georgia sheriff has apologized on social media after one of his deputies “offended” a woman who was breastfeeding in a grocery store, according to a media report.

Muscogee County Sheriff John Darr said he was told that a Facebook post about the weekend incident at a Piggly Wiggly began circulating, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported.

A deputy working part time at the store reacted after some customers complained that Savannah Shukla was breastfeeding, according to the report. The deputy approached the woman and asked if she had something she could use to cover up.

“She got offended by that,” Darr told the paper.

Georgia law allows a mother to breastfeed a baby at any location where the mother and baby are authorized to be, which the sheriff confirmed.

Darr’s Facebook post said in part, “... we hope that she knows that these are not the opinions or practices of the office as a whole.”

Muscogee County, which includes Columbus, is about 105 miles southwest of Atlanta.