Key facts
- Senatobia Police Chief Harold Vanderford was fired Tuesday.
- The firing followed reports of racist slurs used by Vanderford in text messages.
- A one-year-old child, Kohen Wiley, was fatally shot by a police officer in June.
- The city's board of aldermen rejected Vanderford's resignation and voted to terminate him.
- The family's attorney, Ben Crump, called the firing appropriate and demanded transparency in the shooting investigation.
Senatobia Police Chief Harold Vanderford was fired Tuesday by the city's board of aldermen, who rejected his resignation. The decision follows reports alleging Vanderford used racist slurs in private text conversations. Vanderford's firing comes months after a Senatobia police officer fatally shot one-year-old Kohen Wiley and wounded another woman while responding to a shoplifting call at a Walmart in June. Kohen's mother, Vellesiya Wiley, has denied any wrongdoing. The town, which is about 40% Black, has experienced other controversies involving police and Black residents, including the arrest of a 10-year-old boy and an incident involving a Black woman in a handicap parking space. National civil rights attorney Ben Crump, representing Kohen's family, called the chief's firing the "right decision" and urged the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations to release body camera footage of the shooting. The Mississippi legislative Black caucus has called on state officials to take immediate action in Wiley's death.