BELIEVE IT OR NOT, AUTHORITIES SAY A MISSISSIPPI POLICE CHIEF ALLEGEDLY USED RACIAL SLURS MORE THAN A DOZEN TIMES IN TEXT MESSAGES… AND ALDERMEN HAVE VOTED UNANIMOUSLY TO FIRE HIM.
Harold “Hal” Vanderford has been removed from his role as the police chief of Senatobia, Mississippi.
His termination came Tuesday night when the city’s Board of Aldermen refused to let him step down voluntarily.
The aldermen rejected his resignation.
Instead, the board members voted unanimously to fire him.
The decision followed an investigation that revealed Vanderford allegedly used the N-word and other slurs more than a dozen times in text messages.
In one reported text, Vanderford allegedly wrote that he “almost beat a n***** and a white woman’s a**.”
The messages reportedly spanned from summer 2025 through the period after he became chief.
And the termination arrived while the Senatobia Police Department was already facing intense scrutiny.
That scrutiny stems from the police shooting death of one-year-old Kohen Wiley in June.
The child was killed when officers responded to a shoplifting call at Walmart.
Attorney Ben Crump represents Kohen’s family.
Crump said the racist language only deepens concerns about the department.
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He also renewed demands for authorities to release footage of the shooting.
But municipal leaders had publicly defended Vanderford just days earlier.
City leaders said his answers during questioning were “sincere” and that he would continue serving with confidence.
Yet five days later, the board fired him.
The dismissal means Senatobia has now removed two police chiefs in roughly 14 months.
The department has also faced criticism over several other incidents.
Among those prior matters was the arrest of a 10-year-old Black child for public urination.
The agency has also faced allegations involving excessive force by officers.
Other allegations within the department have involved sexual misconduct by officers.
Lt. Angelica Maze has been selected to lead the department.
Maze will serve while the city searches for its next police chief.
The resignation was rejected.
The vote was unanimous.
The chief was fired.
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