Floyd County Sheriff’s Deputy Rick Nelson resigned Tuesday, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has been looking into a recent arrest he was involved in, said Sheriff Tim Burkhalter and Chief Deputy Tom Caldwell.

“He came up and resigned to Caldwell this morning,” said Burkhalter.

Caldwell said Nelson resigned after working with the sheriff’s office for about seven years.

“It may be a little more or less than seven, but it’s somewhere around there,” said Caldwell. “I don’t know why he resigned.”

Though Caldwell could not confirm for what reasons Nelson resigned, he did say there was an internal investigation being conducted in reference to an arrest Nelson and another deputy made.

“It involves an arrest he made with another deputy,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell did say the arrest in question prompted the sheriff’s office to involve the GBI.

“I called GBI last week about it,” Burkhalter said.

Caldwell likewise said the GBI is conducting an investigation into circumstances surrounding the arrest.

“The GBI is doing an investigation and there are some details they’re looking into,” he said, adding that he could not confirm which arrest is being investigated because he didn’t “have the facts in front of him” at the time.

Caldwell said he didn’t know why Nelson resigned, but that it was not uncommon.

“I simply don’t know, he did most of the talking and I did the listening,” he said. “He’d been thinking about it for a while. It’s a personal decision, not forced. It was just something that was time for him to do.”

The Rome News-Tribune made efforts to reach Nelson for comment for this report, but he was not accepting calls on his cell phone.