Lexington Police Chief Sam Dobbins was fired for allegedly using homophobic and racist slurs captured on a recording.
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A white Mississippi police chief was fired on Wednesday after a former police officer released a recording of him using a racist slur to describe a Black person that he claimed to have shot more than 100 times.
The Lexington, Mississippi, Board of Alderman voted 3-2 to fire Chief Lee Dobbins, effective immediately, in response to growing backlash after the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting first reported on the recording.
Former Lexington Police Department officer Robert Lee Hooker recorded the conversation he had with Chief Dobbins in April, according to Cardell Wright, a paralegal for civil rights organization JULIAN, who helped make the recording public.
Wright told Insider that Hooker, who is Black, resigned from his position with the police department last week due to Dobbins's "bad attitude and reckless mouth" and "tyrannical leadership" style.
"It was a very controlling person atmosphere, and they felt like they had to do things that they knew weren't right because he wanted it done or that they would have lost their job.," Wright told Insider.
In the recording, which Insider obtained and reviewed, Dobbins can be heard using the N-word and various homophobic slurs.
When referring to an alleged shootout in a cornfield, Dobbins said "I shot that n----- 119 times, OK?" according to the recording. "I saved 67 kids in a school. The rest of my department, they faded out, they got scared. I went hard bro. I chased this motherfucker across the field."
Dobbins went on to add that the man's vehicle was shot "319 times" by police "but he was hit 119 times by me."
In the recording, Dobbins told Hooker he had killed 13 people in the line of duty and he didn't "give a fuck if you kill a motherfucker in cold blood. I will articulate to fix the fucking problem and I'm the only man in the business, here, who's smart enough to do it, I promise you."
Reached for comment by Insider, Hooker said he felt it was his "duty as a Black man to expose a man of his character."
"He was a dangerous individual with a blatant disregard for people's color and sex preferences and I will stand up and protect them all," Hooker told Insider.
Hooker said he will wait to see how the new police chief runs the department before he considers a return to law enforcement, but he plans to stay in Lexington.
"I'm not going anywhere, and I told my pastor this," Hooker said. "Being ran out the city or letting somebody run people out the city with intimidation is how Chief Dobbins operated, fear and intimidation."
Dobbins could not be reached for comment on Friday, but he previously told the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting when asked about his claim that he had killed 13 people in the line of duty, "That's something we don't discuss, period." Dobbins also denied using racial slurs, according to the outlet.
"I don't talk like that," Dobbins said, according to the center for investigative reporting.
