Ward 3 Councilmember Bree Montoya issued an apology for comments made on a Facebook post following the ”No Kings” protests in Oklahoma City.
In June, Montoya had an exchange with another individual in the comments of a KFOR-TV post about the “No Kings” protests, where she encouraged the user to perform acts of suicide, according to a post on the social platform X. The comments are now deleted.
Montoya wrote in a Facebook post Sunday evening that the exchange got out of hand and she sent a direct apology soon after the incident occurred.
“There are no words to express how awful, inappropriate, and unacceptable my comments were, …” Montoya wrote. “I was immediately disgusted with myself and knew I had crossed an unimaginable line.”
Libs of TikTok, a conservative social media account with millions of followers, reposted a Thursday X post with screenshots of Montoya’s original posts and a separate Facebook comment made by Ward 4 Councilmember Helen Grant following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Kirk was fatally shot Sept. 10 during an appearance at Utah Valley University. OU Turning Point USA held a vigil that night on the South Oval to honor him.
Ward 4 Councilmember Helen Grant during the City Council Swearing-In Ceremony on July 2.
Grant wrote Kirk’s death was ironic, calling him a narcissist and a “grotesque cheerleader.”
“He was definitely a cog in the gears of a much larger death machine, …” Grant wrote. “It is probably destabilizing to MAGA and politically adjacent groups to think someone could actually pop one of their high earning/highly visible talking heads. But gun violence has been ridiculously out of hand, … so it was bound to happen.”
Grant and Montoya did not immediately respond to OU Daily’s request for comment.
Council members are not considered traditional employees of the city and are protected by the First Amendment, so city staff cannot take disciplinary action against council members for exercising that right, according to a Thursday press release from the city of Norman.
“The City of Norman as a municipal corporation does not support actions or behaviors that may encourage harm,” the release read. “Carrying out municipal functions that provide or support public service remains the focus of the corporation.”
This story was edited by Thomas Pablo. Hannah Lambert, Mary Ann Livingood and Avery Avery copy edited this story.
