Mississippi
Mississippi police officer loses job after telling man to 'go back to Mexico'
RICHLAND, Miss. (AP) — A white Mississippi police officer has lost his job after telling a Hispanic man to “go back to Mexico” while the officer was responding to a disturbance at a home.
The officer resigned after he was “relieved of duty” for using “derogatory slurs,” Richland Police Chief Adrian Ready said in a statement Wednesday.
“This type of language is not only unacceptable, but it also undermines the trust and respect that we work hard to build within our community,” Ready said.
The officer, Jeremy Rast, responded to a home disturbance call Sunday with other officers in Richland, a Jackson suburb. Rast told WLBT-TV that the officers exchanged words with a group of men across the road.
WLBT reported that it had obtained video that one of the men, Luis Rodriguez, made of Rast talking to him.
“Like, why don’t you go back to Mexico or something,” Rast said on the video. “Like, whatever. I don’t care. Just get the f—- out of Richland for me, please. … I do not like y’all being here.”
Rodriguez replied that he did not like officers being on his property. Rast responded that Rodriguez cannot legally own property, adding, “you’re illegal.”
Rast also told Rodriguez: “I’m going look for you every shift to try to arrest you.”
Rodriguez and Rast both told WLBT that they had encountered each other previously.
Rodriguez said he is a native of Honduras and a graduate of Richland High School. Rodriguez said because of the statements made by Rast, he is preparing to move out of Mississippi. He said he’s concerned he will be targeted by others in law enforcement.
“Even though he got fired, there might be still some more police officers who think of us like him,” Rodriguez said.
Rast told WLBT he spoke harshly out of frustration with Rodriguez.
“I did make some comments that were inappropriate and unprofessional, I take full responsibility for that,” Rast said. “(I’m) not proud of what I said.”
Rast also said he wants to continue a law enforcement career.
Richland is in Rankin County, where five former sheriff’s department officers and a former Richland police officer pleaded guilty to breaking into a home without a warrant and torturing two Black men in an hourslong attack that included beatings, repeated uses of stun guns and assaults with a sex toy before one of the victims was shot in the mouth. Those six former officers — some of whom called themselves the Goon Squad — were sentenced on federal charges in March and state charges in April.
‘When she came up she was under the bottom of the boat in between the pontoons. She was slapping the boat with her tail and all that. I thought she was going to knock my motor off for a minute.’
Watch: Texas officer wrangles angry gator from family’s front porch
Body camera footage captured the moment a police officer swiftly removed a small alligator from a home in Texas.
After two frustrating nights on the last weekend of the season, a Mississippi hunter caught the alligator he’d been after, but what he didn’t realize when he pulled it in his boat was that not only did it break two state records, it’s possibly a world record.
Jason Ullendorf said a cousin of his was buying a part at a boat shop last week when he was told about an alligator in the Pascagoula River. The alligator had been spotted near a sandbar and had been making people visiting the location uncomfortable.
“We figured we’d help them out and get it out of there,” Ullendorf said. “We went down there to look at it, and it was a pretty good gator. It’s kind of crazy how it happened.”
Catching it was easier said than done, though. Ullendorf and members of his hunting party repeatedly hooked the alligator, only to have the hooks pull out or break off when the alligator would go under logs.
“We chased it from about 9 o’clock until about 3 o’clock in the morning,” Ullendorf said. “By then we’d lost all our hooks.”
More: Hunters bag Mississippi alligator weighing almost 700 pounds
Another long night of hunting alligators
The following day, Ullendorf bought more hooks and returned to the river with only one other hunter, Joseph Mangano of Richton. Fortunately, they found the alligator in the same spot as the night before. Unfortunately, it was shaping up to be a replay of the night before with the two repeatedly hooking the alligator, only to have the hooks pull free.
“It was frustrating,” Mangano said. “At one point, we got so frustrated we left it and an hour later started again. We knew we would hook it, but we were going to have to get it out of the trees.”
At 4:45 a.m., the hunters got a break. The alligator surfaced in open water near the sandbar. The two hooked the alligator with a rod and reel and then got a hand line on it as the alligator towed the two men and their 18-foot pontoon boat upriver. Everything was going relatively smoothly until they pulled the gator near the boat.
“When she came up she was under the bottom of the boat in between the pontoons,” Ullendorf said. “She was slapping the boat with her tail and all that. I thought she was going to knock my motor off for a minute.”
More: ‘The size and mass of his head is unreal.’ Mississippi alligator hunters bag 800-pound giant
Mississippi hunters suspect their alligator is a female
The two got the alligator in their boat and while Ullendorf referred to it as a “she,” he didn’t think it was a female at the time. This alligator was too big to be a female, and the longest female alligator ever recorded in the state was caught in 2022 by Jim Denson and measured 10 feet, 2 inches.
“As soon as she came up we said, ‘That’s a male,’” Ullendorf said. “We never second-guessed it.”
But then they did. When to two took the alligator to Mangano’s business in Richton, Running M Meat Company, they discovered the alligator didn’t have male sex organs.
“I couldn’t believe it at first,” Ullendorf said. “We called Andrew Arnett to come down and verify it. I didn’t believe it at all.”
Is this Mississippi alligator a world record?
Arnett is the head of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Alligator Program. He confirmed it was a female and certified it at 11 feet, 3/4 inches long and 324 pounds. Not only was it a state record for longest female, it was the new state record for heaviest.
However, it may have broken another record, if only it existed. Multiple internet searches came up empty for an official world record for female alligators, but some states keep official records. According to searches by the hunters and Arnett, the longest female alligator on record before Ullendorf’s was 10 feet, 6.75 inches long and it was caught in Florida. If that’s true, Ullendorf has the new world record for longest female alligator.
“Just from what I’ve seen online, I think so,” Arnett said.
Do you have a story idea? Contact Brian Broom at 601-961-7225 or bbroom@gannett.com.
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – The Mississippi Mass Choir has a new album! We Still Believe is available!
The director and some choir members joined Studio 3 to discuss the songs.
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