Charlottesville's police chief announced his retirement Monday and put it into effect immediately.
Al Thomas had been chief since April 2016. He was heavily criticized in a city-commissioned review of the August 11th and 12th, 2017 white supremacist violence in the city.
"Nothing in my career has brought me more pride than serving as Police Chief for the City of Charlottesville," Thomas said in a statement.
In the same statement, City Manager Maurice Jones called Thomas a "man of integrity who has provided critical leadership...." Jones said he would appoint an interim chief within the next week and a search for a permanent replacement would begin immediately.
Thomas has not spoken publicly about his decision to retire. In a report commissioned by city council, former U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy said local police had failed to protect the public, and Thomas might have made matters worse -- ordering them not to break up brawls.
“We had evidence from a couple of people in the command center that the chief actually said, ‘Let them fight. Let them fight for a little while. It will make it easier to declare an unlawful assembly,’” Heaphy said during a news conference earlier this month.
Thomas denied that, but Heaphy found other faults including the failure to properly secure streets, allowing a white supremacist to drive his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 35 others.
“Instead of hard barricades, jersey barriers filled with water, dump trucks or even multiple officers from some agency guarding those secure points in the traffic plan they put the same people that the put on the street around the stadium – another horrible mistake in planning, not intentional," Heaphy explained. "This wasn’t a football game. This is not the Wertland Street block party. This is not the Dalai Lama visiting Charlottesville. This is an event where people are bent on hurting each other.”
Click here to read the full announcement from the City of Charlottesville
