danny blantonThe City of Tupelo, Miss., has engaged crisis PR counsel after the June 18 police shooting of an African-American man following a traffic stop drew national attention.

The shooting of the man, Antwun Shumpert, has drawn wide scrutiny among media and activists, fueled in part by Shumpert's lawyer's comparison of the event -- Shumpert was unarmed and also attacked by a police dog -- to a "lynching" evocative of Mississippi's history of racial discord.

The city brought in Danny Blanton, former PR head of the Univ. of Mississippi and an ex-communications manager for Entergy's Jackson nuclear operations, to advise the city on the PR front.

WTVA reported Blanton is on a $5,000-per-month retainer through June 2017 on a month-to-month basis.