Witness of alleged assault by Gulfport fire chief speaks out

May 31, 2018

Today Chief Battalion Greg Griffin with the Gulfport Fire Department has officially retired.

Griffin was the witness of the reported assault between Gulfport Fire Chief Mike Beyerstedt and firefighter Tim Holliman back in April.

The City of Gulfport opened an investigation into the case and concluded that there was no substantial evidence to prove Beyerstedt was guilty. Now, Griffin is sharing his story and voice recordings of the meeting following the alleged incident after feeling his account of what happened was disregarded throughout the investigation.

[On tape] “You know, there was no bashing of the department going on.” “Well that’s kind of like what it sounded like to me.”

According to Greg Griffin, Chief Mike Beyerstedt overheard and misinterpreted a conversation between Griffin and Tim Holliman which lit the spark that set off Beyerstedt on the morning of April 6^th causing the chief to become verbally abusive and lunged at Holliman, making contact with his face.

[On tape] “After feeling that everyone has calmed down, he wants to show that he can cuss at me? I took that because I did provoke the scene to start with, but I could have taken Tim down right there for insubordination.”

But Griffin says Holliman was far from insubordinate throughout the altercation. “The only cussing that Tim did was coming back in his office and said ‘Chief you wouldn’t appreciate it if someone told you to get the F out.”

[On tape] “I’m going to let it slide this time, but he shouldn’t try that again because he’ll be driving or less.” “Are you talking about a demotion?”

“Immediately, I knew that was a violation of work place laws.”

After the initial meeting between Beyerstedt and Griffin, Holliman contacted human resources and filed an incident report with Gulfport Police at which point Griffin was called in to speak with Beyerstedt once again.

Griffin says Beyerstedt tried to determine if he would stand by his side throughout the investigation, but Griffin made it clear that he would not. “Your rank status shouldn’t make you immune to be accountable for your actions.”

Despite Greg Griffin’s eye witness accounts of the assault and having voice recordings that proved Beyerstedt was threatening to demote an employee, Mike Beyerstedt currently remains as fire chief of the City of Gulfport. “I feel like it’s my responsibility to let the community know that this occurred.”

Griffin says that although speaking out after retirement might cause him future endeavors, he is doing it to clear his name and be a voice for the men still working for the Gulfport Fire Department. “My characteristics are of honesty and integrity, that’s our core value in Gulfport. I believe in those core values and that’s why I am here.”