The police chief of Senatobia, Mississippi, has been fired after an investigation found he used racist slurs in private text messages over the past year, a decision that has renewed scrutiny of his department months after one of its officers fatally shot a 1-year-old boy during a Walmart shoplifting call.
The Senatobia Board of Aldermen voted unanimously on September 2, 2026, to terminate Chief Harold Vanderford rather than accept the resignation he had submitted earlier that day, according to Fox5 Vegas and Fox6 Milwaukee. The board’s move came after two Black aldermen, Allen Tanksley and Demetrius Garrett, publicly broke with an earlier statement of support for Vanderford, prompting the full board to reverse course.
What the investigation found
An investigation by Mississippi Today and The New York Times, in partnership with Verite News, reported that Vanderford used the N-word and other racial slurs more than a dozen times in text conversations with a colleague dating back to summer 2025 and continuing after he was sworn in as chief, according to Fox6 Milwaukee. One message cited by reporters described Vanderford boasting about assaulting a Black man and a white woman during an arrest.
Vanderford has not publicly disputed that the texts are authentic. The Senatobia Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment cited in the reporting.
The shooting death of Kohen Wiley
The firing comes three months after a Senatobia police officer, responding to a reported shoplifting incident at a Walmart on June 14, 2026, fired into a vehicle and fatally shot 1-year-old Kohen Wiley, a Black child, while also wounding a woman in the car, according to Fox6 Milwaukee and Fox5 Vegas.
The boy’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, has said neither she nor her friend stole anything from the store, and no charges have been filed against either woman. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is examining the shooting, and the officer who fired the fatal shot remains on administrative leave.
Attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Wiley family, said the racist texts underscore why the family has pushed for more transparency in the shooting investigation. “Removing this chief was the right decision,” Crump said, according to reporting on the firing, adding that the family still has not been given full access to information about the shooting nearly three months later.
A department under new scrutiny
Senatobia, a city of about 8,500 people and the seat of Tate County, has now lost two police chiefs in just over a year. Lieutenant Angelica Maze has been named to lead the department on an interim basis while the city searches for a permanent replacement, Fox5 Vegas reported.
Alderman Chris McConnell has called for an independent review of the department’s leadership, internal culture, and its handling of misconduct complaints. The Board of Aldermen has not announced a timeline for that review or for the conclusion of the state investigation into the Wiley shooting.
This is a developing story. Sources: Fox6 Milwaukee, Fox5 Vegas, and Yahoo News.
