The mayor of a small town in South Carolina died in a police chase days after every member of the town’s police force resigned.
McColl Mayor George Garner II, 49, died Tuesday after the 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe he was driving veered into the eastbound lane and collided head-on with an 18-wheeler.
Garner was reportedly connected to an active investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) though details of the investigation remain unclear, according to local CBS affiliate WBTW.
Garner was being pursued by law enforcement at the time of the crash, but the coroner said the chase was “not related to any laws being broken. The pursuit was taking place in an effort to protect the well being of Mr. Garner.”
Garner’s death comes days after McColl’s entire five-person police force resigned due to a hostile work environment created by one member of the town council who also cut funding to the department.
“This lack of investment hampered our ability to operate at the standard the citizens of the Town of McColl rightfully expect and deserve,” former chief Bob Hale said in a Facebook post.
He continued: “The safety of the residents and the well-being of the officers should have been prioritized by committing the necessary resources to build a department capable of addressing the complexities of 21st-century policing. Sadly, this was not the case and the majority of my tenure as Chief of Police was spent clearing the names of my officers as well as myself, from the numerous falsehoods that were made against us.”
Hale replaced the town’s former police chief who resigned this June also citing a hostile work environment. That chief said the unfavorable environment was caused by Garner, court records obtained by The Daily Beast show.
