California Mayor Resigns Over Accusations Of Racism After Email On Police Killings Appear Online

Temecula, California, Mayor James Steward resigned Friday following accusations of racism over an email about police killings appeared online earlier in the week. The email was sent on Tuesday after a resident asked Steward how he would work to end police violence.

“I don’t believe any good person of color has been killed by police,” Steward wrote in the email. He also noted he has several African American friends.

The statements met with immediate backlash amid sometimes violent protests for Black Lives Matter and George Floyd, a black Minneapolis man who died pleading for air as a white police officer knelt on his neck.

Steward argued the email was written by voice-text and he didn’t read it before sending it.

“Unfortunately I did not take the time to proofread what was recorded. I absolutely did not say that,” Steward told the Riverside Press-Enterprise on Thursday. “What I said is, and I don’t believe, there has ever been a person of color murdered by police on context to Temecula or Riverside County. I absolutely did not say ‘good.’ I have no idea how that popped up.”

“It was 11 o’clock at night. I looked at it. I thought everything was fine and I sent it. And that was the email that started the firestorm.”

Steward’s response was met with mixed reactions, with one resident saying he gave Steward the “benefit of the doubt.”

“He said sorry, it was an accident,” Derek Webb, an African American resident of Temecula, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise. “He’s the only one who knows that. But whether you have the word ‘good’ in there or not, it doesn’t necessarily make it better.”

Others, including local officials, were not satisfied with the explanation.

“It was unacceptable, and frankly our city deserves better,” Temecula Councilman Matt Rahn said.

Ahead of his resignation, Steward wrote an apology on Facebook.