An off-duty Gainesville police officer was fired after he crashed his car over the weekend and was arrested on charges of driving under the influence.
Tyler McBee was involved in a single-car crash Saturday that was initially handled by Gainesville police, the department announced. Once the responding officers realized McBee was an officer and might be under the influence, they called the Hall County Sheriff’s Office to the scene.
After investigating, deputies arrested McBee on a DUI charge, Gainesville police said. The incident led the agency to fire McBee, who became the second officer fired in the span of a week after one of his former colleagues was arrested on domestic violence charges.
Gainesville police Chief Jay Parrish said in a statement that his agency was dedicated to protecting the community from people driving under the influence, which he described as a “deadly danger.”
McBee has been in law enforcement since 2015, when he started as a probation officer with the Georgia Department of Community Supervision, according to records kept by the state’s Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Council. In 2017, he moved to the Hall sheriff’s office before becoming a full-time patrol officer with Gainesville police in November 2019. He has no disciplinary history with POST, which only reviews the most serious infractions.
“As law enforcement officers, we are and should be held to the highest standards of conduct whether on or off duty,” Parrish said. “Although I am highly disappointed and upset by the actions of McBee, I am proud of the officers on scene who held their colleague to the highest of standards.”
On April 4, Collin Merritt, 26, was fired based on the findings of a GBI investigation, which the police department requested following the former officer’s arrest on domestic violence charges.
Merritt was charged with pointing a gun at his wife in their home Oct. 28, according to an arrest warrant. Gainesville police learned of the incident March 22, when they requested the GBI investigation and suspended Merritt without pay. After the GBI filed charges against Merritt on March 29, he turned himself in at the Hall sheriff’s office a few days later.
Merritt faces charges of reckless conduct, simple assault and pointing a pistol at another. He was released April 4 on $6,100 bond, jail records show.
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