City councilors in Lawrence, Massachusetts, are making calls for the police chief to resign following backlash of the investigation of 16-year-old boy whose decapitated body was found along a river last week.
Modesto Maldonado confirms he and fellow councilor Brian De Pena are asking for Chief James Fitzpatrick to step down.
They say his department did not do enough to search for Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino. Another teenager, 15-year-old Mathew Borges, is being held without bail on a first-degree murder charge.
Viloria-Paulino's family is upset it took so long for police to act after he was last seen on Nov. 18, saying they believed he was in danger from the start. The family says police did not take further action until state police and the Essex district attorney's office became involved 10 days after he was reported missing.
De Pena tells the Eagle Tribune that Fitzpatrick did not effectively respond, despite the pleas from family members.
Fitzpatrick says his department initially believed Paulino ran away. He also disagreed that it was the department's default approach to missing children and teenager cases.
