General Prats had the taxi driver take him immediately to La Moneda, where he presented his resignation to President Allende. The president refused to accept it and convinced him to stay in the government. Reports of the incident quickly made headlines on the front pages of the newspapers. The opposition capitalized on the event, accusing the general of cowardice and of losing his self-control by firing at the vehicle of an unarmed woman. The government press defended him, saying that Prats had been provoked and that the incident could as easily have been a failed attempt on his life. (The incident in fact happened within a block of where General Rene Schneider had been gunned down three years prior.) The Army general staff publicly backed General Prats, but the controversy surrounding the issue, and existing unrest related to social issues, did not die down.