Video: Interim Police Chief For Columbus

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COLUMBUS, Miss.(WCBI)–There is now an interim police chief appointed to lead the Columbus Police Department.

The Columbus Mayor and City Council came together for a special session Tuesday morning choosing a search committee and discussing strategies for selecting a new police chief. Each councilman is appointing one search person from their ward, the mayor, HR Director, and COO is serving on that committee.

“The council approved the job description and also the process, the application, we’ll start taking application Friday. We’ll start advertising on Friday. It is a 30 day process. It should end December 14th,” said Mayor Robert Smith/Columbus.

In the meantime, Captain Fred Shelton is chosen Interim Police Chief by a unanimous vote. The 32 year veteran of the department has been handling the day to day duties since Former Chief Tony Carlton’s resignation. Shelton is now the one at the helm after the recent officer involved shooting in The Friendly City. First on his to do list?

“Is to heal the hurt that the community is feeling. To let the community know that although this was a tragic event that occurred, this is not the future. And that we can move on from this. And establish a better community. The hurt that we are feeling we can turn that into effort to make things better,” said Captain Fred Shelton/Interim Police Chief.

And so the person chosen from the national search to be top cop for the city is coming on board in the middle of investigations leading to the firing of one officer and suspension of two others involved in a deadly shooting.

“Again, again thats still under investigation, information is still forthcoming. And as soon as there is some information that I can release, it will be released. But in the meantime just asking people to continue to waite and patiently let the process work,” said Captain Fred Shelton.

The search for a permanent Police Chief begins Friday. Captain Shelton plans on being one of the applicants in a national search to fill the position of top cop in the Friendly City.