I quit: Darren Wilson leaves the force

Darren Wilson, the police officer whose deadly shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old prompted months of protest in Ferguson, Missouri, resigned from his job on Saturday after avoiding prosecution by the state.

Wilson, 28, said in a resignation letter that he could not “put the residents and police officers of the City of Ferguson at risk” by remaining in his position. “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,” he said.

A grand jury decided on Monday not to charge Wilson with a crime for killing Michael Brown in a residential side street on 9 August. Wilson told the jurors that he acted in self-defence after Brown, who had fled a struggle at the officer’s vehicle, turned and came towards him.

Wilson’s version was sharply disputed by witnesses who said that Brown had his hands up in apparent surrender. The grand jury’s decision led to one of America’s worst nights of race-related rioting in recent times in which a series of businesses were burned down.

The officer’s resignation had been expected for some time. However he said in his letter that “for obvious reasons” he wanted to wait until the grand jury decision had been reached, an apparent reference to avoiding any suggestion of guilt in advance.

“It is my hope that my resignation will allow the community to heal,” Wilson said. “I would like to thank all of my supporters and fellow officers throughout this process.”

Wilson was placed on leave after the shooting and continued to receive his $45,300 salary. He fled his home and remains in hiding. He made his first public appearance since the incident on Tuesday in an interview with ABC News, in which he said he had a clear conscience because “I know I did my job right.”

The resignation was first reported by the St Louis Post-Dispatch, which said that no severance package had yet been agreed for Wilson.

A source familiar with Wilson’s situation told the Guardian earlier this month that the officer was in talks with the city to secure a payout and may resort to legal action if this was not agreed. The source said of Wilson: “I’m not sure he will ever be in police work again, and I’m not even sure that he should hang around in St Louis. He may just basically have to move on with his life somewhere else.”

“I’ve got to figure out what do we do now,” Wilson told the Post-Dispatch on Saturday. “Right now I would not want to be a cop, but you never know. Only time will tell.”

Wilson told the newspaper that resigning was “the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do”.

It emerged last week that Wilson and his partner, Barbara Spradling, had quietly married last month. Spradling, 37, is Wilson’s second wife and is pregnant with his first child. Spradling also served as a Ferguson police officer. Her future with the force could not be confirmed.

Wilson has a financial cushion. About $500,000 was raised through an online fundraising service ostensibly for covering his potential legal bills and other costs, before the collections were halted.

Jeff Roorda, the business manager of the St Louis Police Officers Association, who was involved in the fundraising through the Shield Of Hope charity, told the Guardian that donations had continued streaming in steadily through the mail.

Roorda would not discuss how freely Wilson could use the funds, which he may yet need to defend himself against a potential civil legal action brought by Brown’s family. Asked whether Wilson would be free to spend the money how he wished, Roorda would only say: “We follow the guidance of a tax attorney to determine what expenses we can legally cover.”

The US Department ofJustice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been carrying out a parallel inquiry with a view to potential federal civil rights charges against Wilson. However these, too, are considered unlikely among supporters of Brown’s family.

Any use of public funds to pay off Wilson for his resignation is likely to be highly controversial. The departure of Ferguson’s police chief, Thomas Jackson, has also been widely predicted despite his insistence that he will lead the small police force out of the crisis surrounding Brown’s death.

A review of local policing being conducted by the Department of Justice and St Louis County police could produce a recommendation that Ferguson’s force be dissolved and policing in the city be contracted to the county.