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Akron's Police Chief Resigns Under Pressure

Akron Mayor Horrigan (far left)
Tim Rudell
/
WKSU
Akron Mayor Horrigan (far left)
Police Chief James Nice(center) was forced to resign Sunday evening.
Credit Tim Rudell / WKSU
/
WKSU
Police Chief James Nice(center) was forced to resign Sunday evening.

Akron’s  Police Chief James Nice resigned unexpectedly this afternoon at the request of Mayor Dan Horrigan.

The Horrigan administration is offering no comment about the resignation of Nice until a press conference tomorrow afternoon.  Nice, who is an Akron native and former FBI agent,  had been chief since 2011.

His resignation comes two days after a 17-year-old boy, who was handcuffed, reportedly shot himself in the head and died in the back of the police cruiser. It’s unclear how Xavier McMullen, got the gun in the cruiser and whether the shooting was suicide or accidental.

Maj. Kenneth Ball is now provisional chief.  The Beacon Journal is reporting that the department captains met this afternoon.

Just two weeks ago, Nice and the department were gathering positive national headlines after giving a new bicycle to an 89-year-old veteran whose old bike was stolen. He said then he was proud of the relationship between the department and the Akron community.

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M.L. Schultze
M.L. Schultze came to WKSU as news director in July 2007 after 25 years at The Repository in Canton, where she was managing editor for nearly a decade. She’s now the digital editor and an award-winning reporter and analyst who has appeared on NPR, Here and Now and the TakeAway, as well as being a regular panelist on Ideas, the WVIZ public television's reporter roundtable.
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