As was widely expected, Darren Wilson has resigned from the Ferguson Police Department. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Wilson quit because he was worried about threats the department received in the wake of Mike Brown’s death. “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,” he wrote 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.”
In an interview, Wilson said he left his job “of my own free will” and that he had not received any severance. On Sunday, Ferguson Mayor James Knowles confirmed that Wilson won’t “receive any further pay or benefits” from the town. Still, Wilson should be alright financially, at least for a while: he’s supposed to receive more than $200,000 from his overwhelmingly horrible supporters.
What’s next? “I’ve got to figure out what do we do now. Right now I would not want to be a cop, but you never know. Only time will tell,” said Wilson, who recently expressed interest in using his experience to “teach people” about “uses of force.” He remains under investigation by the Justice Department, but experts say that, as usual, he’s unlikely to face any charges for killing Brown.
This post has been updated throughout.
