Alarming reports have emerged since then, including that the incident was not captured on the officer’s body camera because he did not turn it on until after firing shots, and another report Wednesday from Fox 5 indicated that the two officers involved in the shooting were told by officials over the radio to break off the pursuit because he was merely suspected in a traffic violation.
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Police said the motorcyclist, 31-year-old Terrence Sterling, of Fort Washington, Maryland, purposely drove his bike into the passenger side of a police cruiser early Sunday morning as an officer was trying to get out of that side of the auto.
Sterling was driving recklessly and tried to drive away and hit the police cruiser, police said.
“We have given the police officers a new tool”. But at that point, according to police, Sterling intentionally drove the motorcycle into the passenger door and the officer fired his weapon.
Spokesman Const. Marc Soucy said the force will be reviewing a Toronto police report filed Thursday on its own pilot project into body cameras but that there’s no timeline for Ottawa’s pilot yet. “So the police were trying to open the passenger side door and he couldn’t because the motorcycle was right there, and I guess when he couldn’t open the door, he rolled down his window and shot twice”. Officers in the auto were responding to a report of the motorcycle being driven erratically, police said. The shooting is under investigation and the officer is on administrative leave.
“We have immediately implemented procedures to ensure that body worn cameras are being activated properly and as intended by the body worn camera protocol”, Bowser said. Bowser added that the new policy will serve as a “reminder” for the officers, especially for those who have been on the force for years and who must now become accustomed to flipping the camera switch.
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Milledgeville Police Chief Dray Swicord says, “We’re always looking at ways in which we can upgrade whatever current devices we have at the time to advanced models with more features”.
