Charlottesville police chief announces immediate retirement

Alfred Thomas, the police chief of Charlottesville, Va., announced Monday he is retiring effective immediately, roughly two weeks after a report found his department responded poorly to a violent white supremacist rally in August. 

“I will be forever grateful for having had the opportunity to protect and serve a community I love so dearly,” Thomas said in a statement.

Thomas had served as police chief since May 2016.

{mosads}Earlier this month, a former federal prosecutor released a report that reviewed law enforcement’s response to August’s “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, which was organized in response to the proposed removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

The report found local police had a “flawed plan” for the rally, and “elevated officer safety over public safety.”

The report found a superior told the lone officer assigned to block traffic at an intersection to abandon her post when protesters closed in. A short time later, a car barreled into protesters, killing activist Heather Heyer.

“Even if there was no explicit ‘stand down’ order in place, [the Charlottesville Police Department] and [Virginia State Police] both failed to ‘stand up’ to protect human life,” the report stated.