Oklahoma mayor Theresa Sharp apologizes for husband's KKK Halloween costume

An Oklahoma mayor has apologized after her husband and his friends were photographed wearing Ku Klux Klan costumes on Halloween.

According to KOKH, someone called the Garfield County Sheriff's Office on Saturday night to report that three men were standing around a fire dressed as KKK members. Cary Sharp, the husband of Lahoma Mayor Theresa Sharp, reportedly was one of them.

Although neighbors were alarmed, Sheriff Jerry Niles said the men didn't break any laws and weren't cited. However, a deputy did tell the men to stop what they were doing.

"There is not criminal violations," Niles told KOKH. "There is no bu ban, so it's legal to have a fire."

The story soon went viral, prompting cries of racism and sparking national news headlines.

"Please don't tell me racism is dead!" Alfred Baldwin III wrote in a Facebook post that includes a photo from the scene. "This just happened a few miles outside of Enid. A little town called Lahoma. And to make matters worse, one of them was the mayor of Lahoma's husband! The mayor's HUSBAND!"

Theresa Sharp, 47, said the negative attention makes her feel "sick to [her] stomach."

"I'm disheartened, I'm sad and I'm hurt," she told KOKH. "I would like to apologize publicly to the community."

She told NBC News that she and her husband are not involved with the Klan, and she won't be stepping down from her position as mayor.

"They didn't see the harm in dressing up as the KKK, in comparison to other people dressing up as murderers and bombers," she added.

In a Facebook post, Niles acknowledged that the costumes were "in poor taste" and chalked the incident up to "poor decision-making on the part of several adult males."

Read the full story here.