*WARNING: ARTICLE CONTAINS STRONG AND OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE*
A Mississippi chief of police has been fired after a leaked recording in which he bragged about killing 13 people was published.
White officer Sam Dobbins was the chief of police in Lexington – a predominantly Black town – and in a 16-minute recording, told how he once shot a Black man ‘119 times’.
The disturbing audio was captured in April by fellow officer Robert Lee Hooker, who handed the recording over to civil rights group JULIAN after resigning because of a ‘toxic work environment under Dobbins’.
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Hooker’s recording was first reported by the Mississippi Centre for Investigative Reporting and alongside his shocking shooting admissions, Dobbins also went on a racist tirade.
As per the recording, Dobbins said: “I have shot and killed, in the line of duty, 13 different people.”
He told Hooker: “You’re going to get in some s*** in the streets, and there’s only going to be one man fighting for you, and it’s going to be me, OK?
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“Don’t ever ruin that, all right, because these other n******, they’ll leave you dry. I don’t give a f*** if you kill a m*********** in cold blood... I will articulate to fix the f****** problem, and I’m the only man in the business here that’s smart enough to do it.”
Dobbins also talks about an alleged shooting in the audio, claiming to have saved ‘67 school kids’ by shooting a Black man over 100 times.
“I shot that n****** 119 times, OK?” said Dobbins, who was promoted to chief last year.
He went on: “The vehicle was shot 319 times, but he was hit 119 times by me.”
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Dobbins told the Mississippi Centre for Investigative Reporting that he was ‘unaware’ of the recording and denied using slurs, saying: “I don’t talk like that.”
Asked by the outlet whether or not he killed 13 people in the line of duty, Dobbins replied: “That’s something we don’t discuss, period.”
Speaking to WJTV, Hooker explained: “I knew that once I could get him talking, he was going to say something out of line.”
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He also told WLTB: “I just got to the point where you’re not doing the people right, you’re not doing right, so therefore let me expose you for what you are. And that’s how it happened.”
On 20 July, Lexington’s board of aldermen voted 3-2 to fire Dobbs effective immediately.
The board represents the town’s approximate 1,600-strong population, nearly 80 percent of whom are Black.
The Independent reports that Lexington’s police department has previously been accused of treating the town like ‘the wild, wild west’, with the force also facing allegations of ‘widespread police violence and abuse’.
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UNILAD has approached the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office for comment.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact Stop Hate UK by visiting their website www.stophateuk.org
Aisha Nozari