The new gig is not currently working out too well for former Oakland Chief of Police Anne Kirkpatrick, as she apparently ran her car into two pedestrians in New Orleans on Saturday night.
Former Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick did not have a particularly successful tenure when she held that job from 2017 to 2020, but the same can probably be said for pretty much every other Oakland chief of police. After being fired in 2020, Kirkpatrick landed on her feet when she was hired last year as the New Orleans Police Department superintendent.
But now she’s making some pretty bad news in New Orleans too. The Chronicle reports that Kirkpatrick hit two pedestrians while driving there Saturday night. According to the New Orleans news site NOLA, the accident was around 7 pm Saturday night at Decatur and Iberville streets in New Orleans.
The identity of the two victims has not been released. One is a woman who was taken to the hospital and treated for what are described as minor injuries, the other is a man who said he was not hurt, and declined medical care.
Kirkpatrick spoke out about the crash for the first time on Sunday.
“I’m so sorry for what happened last night,” she told NOLA. “I’m so grateful that the two people involved really are going to be fine. Just terribly sorry. It is under investigation, and when it’s completely finished, I’m going to ask for the state patrol to look at that investigation as well. Again, terribly sorry for the whole event.”
The rest of her remarks were not really a textbook apology.
“If I had seen [the pedestrians], I probably wouldn’t have had the accident,” she continued. “But anyway, I really need to run, but the investigation should be closed real soon."
According to the New Orleans PD, Kirkpatrick took a breathalyzer which showed she had not been drinking any alcohol. She also submitted a urinalysis test, and those results are expected in the coming days.
Kirkpatrick was Oakland’s first-ever female police chief when hired in 2017, but she had plenty of tension with the Oakland Police Commission after she elected to not dismiss five officers who were involved in the 2018 fatal shooting of a homeless man. So the commission had Kirkpatrick fired, though she won a $1.5 million settlement in a wrongful termination case.
Meanwhile, Oakland cycled through a couple of interim police chiefs before hiring LeRonne Armstrong as chief in early 2021, though he too was fired amidst drama and controversy. Former Lubbock, Texas police chief Floyd Mitchell took the OPD chief job this past spring, after the city went an entire year without a full-time chief of police.
Related: Fired Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick to Get $1.5M Settlement After Court Win [SFist]
Image: @oaklandpoliceca via Twitter
