On Wednesday (July 20), Mississippi police chief Sam Dobbins was fired after authorities received audio of him bragging about shooting Black people. In the recordings, the white police chief was also heard making homophobic and racist remarks.
via: Complex
According to the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, newly leaked audio features the voice of a white man who claims to have killed more than a dozen people in the line of duty, including one Black individual whom he shot over 100 times. The outlet reports the man in the recording was identified as Sam Dobbins, the white police chief of the predominantly Black town of Lexington.
“I have killed 13 men in my career, justified,” the man is heard telling another officer in the recording. “In my line of duty, I have shot and killed 13 different people.”
He proceeded to detail one specific shooting that took place in a field: “I shot that n****r 119 times, OK? I saved 67 kids in a school. I chased this motherfucker across the field. I got him. He was DRT [dead right there] in the field. The vehicle was shot 319 times, but he was hit 119 times by me.”
The man claimed he was quickly cleared by the sheriff’s office after the fatal shooting, and immediately received his gun back.
The recording, which also included the use of homophobic slurs, was captured and provided by Robert Lee Hooker, a former Lexington officer who resigned from the department last month, citing “a toxic work environment.” Hooker reportedly gave the recording to the civil rights organization JULIAN; the group’s paralegal Cardell Wright described Dobbins’ alleged remarks as “appalling, racist, hateful and detrimental to the welfare of the people.”
“This recording proves that the oppressors no longer wear white sheets, but they wear law enforcement uniforms,” he told the outlet.
On Wednesday, the Lexington Board of Alderman voted 3-2 to fire Dobbins. Charles Henderson is now serving as the interim police chief.
When pressed about the number of people he’s killed while on the job, Dobbins told MCIR he wouldn’t discuss the issue. He also denied using racist and homophobic slurs: “I don’t talk like that,” he said.
