US police officer Darren Wilson - who fatally shot unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, triggering nationwide riots in the United States - has resigned.
Darren Wilson, 28, has been on administrative leave since the shooting on Aug. 9. His resignation was announced Saturday by one of his attorneys, Neil Bruntrager. The resignation is effective immediately, Bruntrager said.
In an interview Saturday with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Wilson said resigning was "the hardest thing" he'd ever had to do, but made the decision after the police department told him it had received
threats of violence if he remained on the force.
"I'm resigning of my own free will," he said. "I'm not willing to let someone else get hurt because of me."
The Missouri town and other US cities saw several days of rioting and looting this week after a jury decided not to bring charges over the killing. Mr Wilson, who is white, said he had acted in accordance with the law.
