McComb Selectman E.C. Nobles is accusing the president of the McComb NAACP of threatening him after the city board’s Tuesday meeting.
The alleged incident occurred after selectmen voted 3-2 to fire City Administrator Jim Storer during an executive session. Nobles was one of the three board members who voted to dismiss Storer.
Nobles said this morning that he is pressing charges of threatening a public official against Anthony Witherspoon because of an altercation that allegedly occurred between the men Tuesday evening at City Hall.
Nobles said he believed Witherspoon confronted him “because I disagree with the mayor, and Mr. Witherspoon and the mayor are good friends.”
Witherspoon has not been arrested. Attempts to contact him about the incident were unsuccessful this morning. The case, should it proceed, would be heard in McComb City Court. The charge is a misdemeanor.
Nobles said the altercation occurred as he was trying to leave City Hall after the board meeting.
According to an incident report filed with McComb police, Nobles said Witherspoon asked to speak with him, and Nobles asked Witherspoon to get with his secretary.
According to Nobles, Witherspoon allegedly told him, “You’re not going to have one (secretary) very long.”
After Nobles told Witherspoon that threatening a public official was a serious charge, Witherspoon, according to Nobles, “told me I was going to pay for what I was doing to my community.”
At that point, Nobles told police, he felt he was being threatened, adding that his family had been threatened before.
Nobles said the threat against his family came soon after he was elected to the city board to fill the unexpired term of former selectman David Myers.
Nobles’ DeSoto Street business was picketed in May after he abstained from voting on holding a residency hearing for Mayor Zach Patterson. The hearing was later dropped.
