Tulsa Sheriff Stanley Glanz, whose volunteer reserve deputy and insurance executive friend Robert Bates killed Eric Harris on April 2, will not step down from his seat. However, he won’t seek re-election next year, he told Tulsa World in an interview on Monday.

Glanz commented on a 2009 internal inquiry into whether Bates received special treatment. Bates and Glanz have been friends for decades, Glanz has said, after Bates became the sheriff’s insurance agent. In the 2009 investigation some Tulsa officials questioned Bates’ training and firearms qualifications. "Did I read it word for word?" Glanz told Tulsa World on Monday. "I can’t say that I did." 

But, Glanz said, "I have never waived any requirements for him with regard to his training or his position as a reserve deputy." Undersheriff Tim Albin, one of two undersheriffs implicated in the 2009 internal investigation, resigned last week. Glanz said that he trusted Albin, but "maybe had too much trust" in him.

Glanz says he won’t resign in part because he feels he must continue to lead the Tulsa Sheriff’s Department until the ongoing investigations into Eric Harris’ death are completed, and in part because he’s received a great deal of community support since Bates killed Harris. When asked to elaborate, Glanz responded, "Well, for three weeks I couldn’t buy a meal. I mean I would go into a restaurant, and I couldn’t pay for my meal."

Bates, a 73-year-old white man, was charged with second-degree manslaughter for allegedly mistaking his gun for his Taser when he shot Harris, a black man, during an undercover gun sting.