Two years after he moved to Vermont to lead Northfield’s police department, Chief Pierre Gomez has submitted his resignation, effective Nov. 1.
Gomez said he emailed his letter of resignation to the select board and the town manager Tuesday, just after noon.
Ongoing racial discrimination from some people and “their attempt to undermine the department since I was hired in 2023” are among reasons for Gomez leaving, he said in an interview.
He said he is unable to comment further “due to pending litigation.”
Select Board member Merry Shernock confirmed she heard from the chief Tuesday after he submitted the letter.
“This saddens me very much, but I have been sad about this for quite some time,” said Shernock, who has been the most vocal among board members in supporting Gomez at public meetings this year.
“I was on the committee that hired Mr. Gomez and we had such high hopes. I think he did as well,” she wrote in an email Tuesday.
Northfield Town Manager Jeff Schulz and other members of the board did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Gomez, 58, was hired in September 2023 as chief of police in the Washington County town of about 5,900 — home to Norwich University — after former chief of police John Helfant retired amid controversy in May 2023.
One of three police chiefs of color in Vermont — he identifies as a Black Latino — Gomez has reported facing racial harassment since he moved to town.
Northfield residents packed a select board meeting in April to support him after Lynn Doney, a disgraced former selectman who worked as a deputy sheriff and EMT in Washington County, made a racist remark regarding Gomez wearing a hoodie on duty instead of wearing his uniform, “so he looks like a police chief and not a gangster off the street that’s just driving our cruisers around,” he said.
Doney was interrupted by selectboard member Shernock, who said she didn’t think Gomez looked like a gangster and that police officers don’t always have to be in uniform.
More than a dozen residents wore hoodies to a subsequent select board meeting in solidarity with Gomez, who was also present and wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt in the back of the room.
In September, while on duty, Gomez was accosted by a resident – later identified as Gary Allen Smith – who, he said, “ranted and raved” at him using racist terms.
Originally from Pittsburgh, Gomez moved to Vermont with more than two decades of experience after retiring as a detective in Philadelphia.
His decision to leave comes during Hispanic Heritage Month and after another leader of color in policing — Etan Nasreddin-Longo — was removed from the Vermont State Police’s Fair and Impartial Policing Committee last month.
Gomez said he hopes to go back to Philadelphia in January, “where they celebrate diversity.”
