The Woburn police officer under investigation for his alleged involvement in the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia has resigned, Woburn Police Chief Robert Rufo told Boston 25.
According to Rufo, Donnelly handed in his resignation on Monday, effective at 5:00 p.m.
John Donnelly was placed on administrative leave last week after Mayor Scott Galvin and Woburn Police Chief Robert F. Rufo Jr. learned that he had “participated in and was active in the planning” of the rally, which included white nationalists, neo-Nazi groups, and members of the Ku Klux Klan, city officials said in a news release.
“A thorough finding of fact is necessary in this situation, and our investigation shall continue,” Chief Rufo said in a statement. “For decades, police chiefs across the commonwealth have called for a statewide certification process to ensure that allegations of misconduct are thoroughly investigated, and bad actors are held accountable. That will be our focus moving forward. The men and women of the Woburn Police Department are united in disavowing hate in all its forms.”
“There is no place for hate in Woburn or in the ranks of the Woburn Police Department,” Mayor Galvin said. The City of Woburn stands together in its opposition to hate and violence, and we will emerge stronger as a community.”
Participants in the rally carried weapons and chanted racist and anti-Semitic slogans. A woman died and many others were hurt when a car drove into a group of counter-protesters. The driver, James Fields Jr., was sentenced in 2019 to life in prison.
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