An hour-long special city board meeting ended Friday night with the termination of a new hire.
Aldermen voted 5-0 after discussion in executive session to fire Joshua Strickland. Strickland was voted in Tuesday in the regular board meeting after Mayor Justin McKenzie cast the deciding vote when aldermen tied 2-2.
The Hattiesburg Police Department and the Mississippi Highway Patrol are investigating a Jan. 26, 2019, incident in which two people were killed in an automobile accident involving a Forrest County sheriff’s deputy. Strickland, who worked with the Forrest County Sheriff’s Office at the time, was not driving the accident but is a party to the investigation. Strickland and another officer, Deputy Chey Sumrall, were first placed on administrative leave before eventually resigning.
For more information on this story see the Thursday, July 25, 2019, edition of the C-P.
