Embattled Fla. chief steps aside

Chief Bill Lee has been hammered in the national media for his handling of the controversial case in which a teen was shot by a community watch volunteer

By PoliceOne Staff

SANFORD, Fla. — Embattled Police Chief Bill Lee has temporarily stepped down from the post he’d held for just ten months. That move comes just one day after local city politicians saddled him with a vote of no confidence.  Chief Lee has come under criticism for his handling of a case in which a Miami Gardens teenager named Trayvon Martin was shot dead by a community watch volunteer named George Zimmerman. 

“I am aware my role as leader of this department has become a distraction from the investigation,” Lee reportedly said, adding that “temporarily removing” himself from the role would restore a “semblance of calm to the city which has been in turmoil for several weeks.”

The Miami Herald reports that “two captains will head the department until an interim chief can be found, according to the City Manager Norton Bonaparte. The city manager did not specify whether Lee would continue to be paid his $102,000 salary, or when he would return to his job as police chief.”