After racial turmoil, city hires black female police chief

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Officials in Charlottesville, Virginia, have given final approval to hiring the city’s first African-American woman police chief, following the previous chief’s departure in the aftermath of a violent white nationalist rally.

The Daily Progress reports the City Council approved a resolution Monday endorsing the city manager’s recommendation to hire RaShall M. Brackney.

The 55-year-old Brackney is a former George Washington University police chief.

She will succeed Al Thomas, who was the city’s first African-American police chief. Thomas retired in December after a report was released about the August rally. It found serious police and government failures in responding to violence that erupted there. During the turmoil, a woman was killed when a car plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters.

Brackney’s effective start date is June 18.

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Information from: The Daily Progress, http://www.dailyprogress.com