The St Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper said Mr Wilson, 28, had decided to step down after his police department received threats of violence if he stayed on as an employee.
Resigning was, he said, the "hardest thing" he had ever had to do.
The newspaper published what it said was his resignation letter, which read: "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.
"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."
In a subsequent telephone interview on Saturday evening, the paper quoted Mr Wilson as saying: "I'm resigning of my own free will. I'm not willing to let someone else get hurt because of me."
Rioting rocked Ferguson and other towns this week after a jury decided he should not be charged over the killing.
The 9 August shooting in the St Louis suburb and the decision not to charge Mr Wilson triggered a nationwide debate over relations between black communities and law enforcement.
No comments:
Post a Comment