Assistant Chief

Assistant Chief of Police Johnny Sellers was born and raised in Whiteville, NC.   He began his military career in June 1993, as an Infantryman in the North Carolina Army National Guard.  After attending the University of North Carolina at Pembroke in Pembroke, NC, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Criminal Justice and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Military Police Corps in August 1997.    

Assistant Chief Sellers served in a myriad of assignments throughout his 25 years of military service with 21 of those years as a Military Police Officer.   These assignments spanned almost every aspect of law enforcement from policing communities to conducting criminal investigations, and combat deployment operations in Iraq and other hostile fire locations. During his career he also experienced large investigations during his time with the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division Command, supported federal agencies with counterdrug operations throughout the U.S. and Caribbean; and was a key leader in the U.S. Army’s response to the massive flooding in South Carolina during October 2015, both on Ft. Jackson and in the SC Midlands.

In 2018, Assistant Chief Sellers retired from the U.S. Army as the Director of Emergency Services and Provost Marshal at Fort Jackson, SC at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and began working as a Police Inspector with the Columbia Police Department (CPD) in Columbia, SC as the department’s Emergency Manager in the Special Operations Division.  During his time with CPD, he worked to improve the department’s special event planning and critical incident response plans, was a key planner and operations officer for the 2020 protests and riots in Columbia, and he was appointed to lead the critical incident review board for the protests and riots in Columbia completing a 92 – page report as the main author.  Later Assistant Chief Sellers was reassigned to build and lead the CPD Real – Time Crime Center (RTCC) and manage the City of Columbia’s new $8.5 million security camera project, which incorporated technology into CPD daily operations, coordinated intelligence and information sharing within the SC Midlands, and supported several large-scale operations utilizing the RTCC.

In March 2023, Assistant Chief Sellers was hired as the first Assistant Chief of Police for the North Myrtle Beach Police Department.  During his short time with the department, he has assisted the Chief of Police in leading and managing the department through critical incidents and large – scale events bringing his knowledge and experience to the department to keep the City of North Myrtle Beach safe.

Assistant Chief Sellers has numerous Military awards and decorations, and commendations from his time at the Columbia Police Department.  He is married and has two daughters, a son-in-law, a beautiful granddaughter, and a German Shepherd named Bolo.