NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)— The officer who reportedly ignored a woman’s call for help after she witnessed an unconscious woman being raped in New Orleans’ French Quarter has resigned, Constable Edwin M. Shorty, Jr. announced on Thursday.
According to the Constable, the officer, who was a Reserve Deputy Constable, resigned amid an internal investigation into the sexual assault that occurred on July 26. More information from the investigation showed that the officer’s actions did not align with the statement he gave to the department.
Upon the announcement of the resignation, the Constable released new details into what happened near Toulouse and Royal streets the night of the sexual assault. Officials say that several minutes had gone by between the time the witness notified the deputy and when the deputy confirmed that NOPD was on the scene.
Perhaps the most shocking finding from the investigation was that the deputy, who was in his vehicle when the witness alerted him, didn’t exit his car until after she had left and even more, was seen on surveillance video walking in the opposite direction of where the crime believably happened.
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The Constable says the deputy gave no effort to notify the NOPD or the Constable’s Office of the information he had received. It wasn’t until August 10, more than two weeks later, that the Constable learned of the incident.
The investigation of the sexual assault remains ongoing by the NOPD.