The police chief for the city of Commerce has resigned in the wake of last month's arrest of the 2016 Miss Black Texas US Ambassador. Chief Kerry Crews was not at Monday evening's special City Council meeting but announced his resignation in a letter read by the mayor, KDFW-TV (Channel 4) reported. The announcement followed backlash from the May 20 arrest of Carmen Ponder, a 23-year-old pre-law student at Texas A&M University-Commerce, who was detained at a Wal-Mart after an encounter with Commerce ISD school board trustee Michael Beane. Ponder alleged that Beane cut her off on the road and noted that he was teaching his 14-year-old daughter how to drive. She said he called her a "black [expletive]" after she told him it was illegal for a child that age to be driving. In a prepared statement, Ponder's attorney Lee Merrit alleged that Crews, who was off-duty at the time, approached Ponder in the parking lot and demanded that she apologize to Beane. When she refused, she was detained. Crews wrote in his letter that he intervened at the trustee's request. He said he felt the dispute was "something I could handle. I was wrong."

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