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Virginia Police Chief Who Blasted Cops for Using Stun Gun on a Black Man Is Retiring

Edwin Roessler Jr. led Fairfax County’s police department for seven years—and the police union and a pro-police group have been calling for him to resign since July.

A Virginia police chief who denounced his own Fairfax County force in June after one of his white officers used a stun gun on a Black man has announced plans to retire, per the county police department’s news site. Edwin C. Roessler Jr., who said that the nation was “righteously angry at the law-enforcement profession” after the June incident that occurred soon after the killing of George Floyd, had served as a police officer in Fairfax County for over three decades. Roessler also told media he was “disgusted” after seeing the body-camera footage, placing the three officers involved on paid administrative leave; one is facing three counts of assault and battery in the incident. However, Roessler became a target of the police union after the comments, with the Fairfax Fraternal Order of Police calling on him to quit, saying he had crossed a line from police officer to politician, DCist reports. A local pro-police advocacy group had been calling for his resignation for months, according to a Connection News report.