Residents of a rural Mississippi town are mourning after a wreck claimed the life of its police chief one day after he retired.

WTVA in Tupelo reports that Newly-retired Bruce police chief Tony Sockwell died in a one-vehicle crash Monday morning on Highway 331 in Calhoun County.

Mississippi Highway Patrol officials report that the crash happened shortly before 8:38 a.m. when Sockwell, 59, was traveling north when his pickup truck crossed the center line, ran off the highway and struck a tree.

Sockwell died at the scene of the crash. The MHP is now investigating.

Bruce Mayor Rudy Pope said Sockwell had retired from the Bruce Police Department the day before the crash.