LINK
After announcing his retirement Tuesday, New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass told several high-ranking officers that he had been forced out by Mayor Ray Nagin, the officers said Wednesday.
They said Compass told them the decision came on the heels of a heated confrontation with the mayor. The officers spoke only on condition that they not be named.
Reached Wednesday by e-mail, Nagin said that those accounts were "inaccurate."
Compass could not be reached for comment.
At a hastily called news conference Tuesday with Nagin in attendance, Compass announced that he was retiring. When asked by a reporter whether Compass was being forced out, Nagin said no.
But after the announcement, Compass returned to a cruise ship where he and other displaced officers had been living, where they say he told them he had been forced to resign.
"He was going around telling officers, including myself, it wasn't his doing, that he would've never quit," said a high-ranking officer who asked not to be named. "He had tears in his eyes. He didn't want to go."
Another officer said Compass told him, "You work at the pleasure of the mayor. This was not my decision."
Nagin later named Assistant Superintendent Warren Riley as acting superintendent.
Officers said Compass told them that he and Nagin had an angry confrontation Tuesday morning, hours before Compass announced his retirement, which he said would begin after a transition period of up to 45 days.
Compass has come under increasing fire because of the Police Department's response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, in which some officers were seen looting a store and 249 officers left their posts.