White cop who shot black kid resigns from police force

WASHINGTON: The white police officer who ignited African-American outrage across the US after fatally shooting dead an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri has quit his job, evidently fearing for his own life and the wellbeing of his colleagues.
Darren Wilson, who has been on paid administrative leave from August 9 when the shooting incident took place, is now resigning from his job to allow Ferguson to ''heal,'' his lawyers have said.
''I have been told that my continued employment may put the residents and police officers of the City of Ferguson at risk, which is a circumstance that I cannot allow. For obvious reasons, I wanted to wait until the grand jury made their decision before I officially made my decision to resign,'' Wilson said in a resignation letter.
''It was my hope to continue in police work, but the safety of other police officers and the community are of paramount importance to me. It is my hope that my resignation will allow the community to heal,'' he added.
Wilson, 28, was a six-year veteran of the Ferguson police department. In testimony before the Grand Jury and in an interview to ABC, he maintained that Michael Brown, an unarmed but heavily built 18-year old black youth, would have killed him if he had not shot him when he pulled the black youth over while looking for a robbery suspect.
But many black residents of Ferguson, who have been protesting though Thanksgiving following the Grand Jury decision not to indict Wilson and are still hoping for a federal indictment, say his resignations falls well short of justice. ''We were not after Wilson's job. We were after Michael Brown's justice,'' the civil rights leader Al Sharpton said.
Under the aegis of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), many the Ferguson protestors are planning a week-long march to the Governor’s mansion seeking justice, amid speculation that Wilson was paid for the ABC interview and is negotiating book and movie deals, which the cop has denied. Some reports suggest the police officer’s supporters have amassed a million-dollar war chest to fight his legal cases should the government seek to pursue charges against him.
The federal Justice Department continues to pursue two investigations, one into potential civil rights violations by Wilson when he shot Brown and one into the practices of the mostly white Ferguson Police force.