A Tennessee fire chief said he was fired and didn't resign after he was convicted last week in connection with a 2017 shooting when he was a part-time sheriff's deputy. The ensuing controversy has led to some volunteer firefighters leaving the former chief's department in protest.
Monteagle Fire Chief Mike Holmes was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide after a jury determined that his gunfire in 2017 had killed Shelby Comer, 20, a passenger in a chase between Holmes and Jacky Wayne Bean, the car's driver, WTVC-TV reports. Lawyers for Holmes, who worked part-time as Grundy County deputy sheriff at the time, had argued that Comer died from a drug overdose and not the gunshot, which struck her in the left back, according to a forensic pathologist during the trial.
At a town workshop Monday, a letter from lawyers advising officials on the situation was read and stated that "we do not feel that you can allow (Holmes) to remain in the position of the Fire Chief." A discussion followed the reading, and Monteagle Vice Mayor Tony Gilliam says Holmes resigned.
“With Mr. Holmes serving as fire Chief, (it) would be a liability of the town after him being convicted of a felony,” he told WTVC, adding that officials had considered suspending Holmes until his sentencing in April.
But Holmes disputes that he resigned his post, calling that version events "a lie." He said the workshop discussion which a newspaper reporter described as "heated" had taken him by surprise and led him to believe he had been fired.
"I was no longer allowed on fire department property, I left the meeting," Holmes told WTVC. "As far as I know, I was terminated.”
Since Monday's workshop, some volunteer firefighters left the department to protest Holmes no longer being chief. Holmes told WTC that he did not any firefighters to resign.
Gilliam told the TV station that "a few" career firefighters are still on the job for the department.
