Senatobia police chief dismissed after racist text messages revealed

The Senatobia Board of Aldermen voted unanimously on Tuesday to fire Police Chief Harold Vanderford after a local newspaper reported that he regularly sent text messages containing racist slurs toward Black people. Vanderford had submitted a resignation on September 1, but the board rejected it and opted for termination instead.

The decision comes as the city continues to face criticism over its police department. In June, a white officer shot and killed one-year-old Kohen Wiley, who was in his mother’s arms, after officers fired into a vehicle during a response to a shoplifting call at a Walmart. The incident has prompted calls for greater transparency, with the family’s civil-rights attorney, Ben Crump, demanding release of body-camera footage and a full investigation into Sgt. Hunter Foster, the officer identified as having fired the fatal shots.

Vanderford’s dismissal follows a series of controversies involving police interactions with Black residents, including the 2023 arrest and detention of a 10-year-old Black boy for public urination and a 2022 incident in which a Black woman was forced from her car in a handicap space at the same Walmart. Angelica Maze, a Black alderwoman, has been appointed interim police chief.

State and local law-enforcement officials said they will withhold further updates until their investigation concludes. Crump said, "> Removing [Vanderford] was the right decision, and the Senatobia Board of Aldermen deserves credit for acting. But it does not answer the question Kohen’s family has been asking since June 14: what happened to their baby?" He added that the family has not been allowed to view the footage and urged the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation to release it and complete the inquiry into Sgt. Foster.