Hours After Shooting Of Black Woman, San Francisco Police Chief Resigns From Department With History Of Racist Officers
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee speaks at a news conference with Fire Chief Joanne Hayes White and Police Chief Greg Suhr behind him at San Francisco International Airport in 2013. Suhr resigned Thursday as head of a department beleaguered with accusations of excessive force against black suspects and a racist-text scandal. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said Thursday that the city's police chief, Greg Suhr, tendered his resignation hours after city police officers fatally shot a black woman who had fled after officers checked to see if she was driving a stolen vehicle, Reuters reported.

The city’s police force has been under intense scrutiny over the past year after a series of killings by police officers and a scandal involving racist text messages by some officers.

Lee said Toney Chaplin has been named acting police chief, according to local media. Suhr is white and Chaplin is African-American.

Earlier in the day, Suhr told reporters that around 9:45 a.m. PDT, two officers approached the 27-year-old woman as she sat in a car that was identified as stolen. The woman tried to drive away but crashed into a nearby vehicle; she was fatally shot as police confronted her.

Neither the woman nor the officers have been identified.

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