The decorations are a tribute to Police Chief Mike De Nardo, who killed himself Th.
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“Not only was it Bay St. Louis Property, and that’s what I’m going to say, Bay St. Louis Property, police property, but we were also looking at him for fraudulent payroll”, Adam said. Hancock County Coroner Jim Faulk said Chief DeNardo died Thursday, Sept. 8, . According to the Sun Herald’s reporting, the money was not kept in a separate account as it was supposed to be, and it remains unclear where that money was spent. Bay St. Louis, Miss., Mayor Les Fillingame stands outside the city’s police department as he talks about the department’s police chief’s suicide the day before Friday, Sept. 9, 2016.
“It’s hard for a police officer when he is relieved of his duty, so maybe that played into it”, Adam said.
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss.
Hancock County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Don Bass says chief Mike DeNardo was under investigation for allegations he illegally sold city-owned firearms.
Bass said DeNardo illegally sold at least one city-owned rifle and possibly other police department weapons.
“Obviously, he (DeNardo) had given me the wrong information before”, said Fillingame. Fillingame didn’t get any more detailed than that, but did say that he believed that De Nardo could clear up whatever the issue was and pointed out that De Nardo had not actually been charged or indicted. “It’s terribly upsetting. We’re in shock”.
Bass said city administrators told the sheriff’s office that DeNardo had turned in some of his equipment earlier.
“It’s just a bad day – a bad day for law enforcement”, Bass said.
Fillingame told the Sun Herald this morning in an interview outside the Police Department that “the Sheriff’s Office brought forward some evidence they had gotten on a tip that alluded to something that happened outside the city that involved Mike De Nardo”. The police chief left three apology letters – to the sheriff, the mayor and one other unspecified person – for the payroll fraud, Adam said. Both have been turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, he said.
Those are the latest developments in a case that has shocked many in this small, tourist-friendly beach community.
After learning of the investigation, DeNardo went into the parking lot and shot himself.
At this time, there is no word on why DeNardo was being investigated. He then went to the parking lot, retrieved a shotgun from his trunk and shot himself, Bass said.
“We had not approached him”.
Mayor Les Fillingame says DeNardo was suspended without pay Thursday pending an investigation by the sheriff’s department. He could not give details on what the intelligence was about.
He also said that De Nardo was “reeling from the death of his mother”, was in a state of personal grief and also was dealing with an investigation.
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Councilman Doug Seal said he had only heard rumors of an investigation.
