The Metropolitan Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating an officer-involved shooting that left one Maryland man dead after he crashed his motorcycle into a police car on Sept.11.
Around 4:30 a.m., Terrence Sterling, who resided in Fort Washington, Md., was seen driving erratically near the 1700 block of U Street NW by a police officer. Moments later at the corner of 3rd Street and M Street, NW Sterling, 31, was seen driving recklessly by another officer. The police officer tried to exit the squad car in attempts of stopping the motorcycle, but Sterling allegedly rammed his motorcycle into door of the car where the officer was exiting. The officer shot Sterling and he later died at a local hospital, according to police reports.
Assistant Police Chief Peter Newsham gave a similar account of the incident in a video on Twitter a few hours after the shooting.
Newsham said the police officers were able to stop the motorcycle about a block North of New York Avenue as Sterling tried to flee and struck the police car. At that point shots were fired. “Fortunately we do have some witnesses who are out here cooperating with us,” Newsham said in reference to piecing together the events of the shooting.
At least one of the witnesses of the fatal scene has a different description of the shooting.
One witness recorded the incident on his cell phone. “They just shot this dude,” the witness said in the video that shows Sterling lying on the ground on the side of the marked police car, while the two officers involved try to give the victim medical assistance.
“The victim hits the police car just enough to put a small dent in it. It didn’t damage the bike and then once he hit the car pop, pop pop,” the witness told a local news station. “I duck down I got back up and I see the guy on his bike just fall.”
The officers involved in the incident have been placed on administrative leave.
The police told the AFRO that there have been eight officer involved shootings as of Sept. 13.