Photo by AlbinoFleaA Metropolitan Police Department officer was indicted yesterday in D.C. Superior Court in connection with a shooting incident last August in which he allegedly fired his service weapon in an altercation that arose from an attempt to solicit sex from a transgender prostitute.
Officer Kenneth Furr was indicted on nine counts, including assault with intent to kill while armed, the Post reported.
Furr, according to court documents, got into a confrontation with a group of individuals at a CVS store about 5:25 a.m. on August 26. After being asked to leave the store, Furr showed the people with whom he’d been arguing the handgun in his car’s glove compartment before driving off, prosecutors said. The other people in the altercation drove off as well.
When the cars collided a few minutes later at First and Pierce streets NW, Furr jumped onto the hood of the victims’ car and shouted, “I’m gonna kill you,” and fired multiple times through the windshield, according to court documents. Two people in the car were transgender women, and one of the passengers was hit in the arm and hand. Furr, who was intoxicated, was arrested at the scene after showing a .15 blood-alcohol content level on a breathalyzer test.
Furr’s alleged shooting incident came amid a flurry of violent attacks on transgender people last summer. Three transgender women were accosted by a suspect with a gun on the 4000 block of Minnesota Avenue SE in early September, and police ruled the death that month of aerospace engineer and theatermaker Gaurav Gopalan a homicide, but have made no arrests in the case.
More recently, the District’s transgender community was shaken by the murder last month of Deoni Jones, who was killed near a Metrobus stop on East Capitol Street. A Northeast D.C. man, Gary Niles Montgomery, has been charged in Jones’ death.
But though MPD was quick to apprehend a suspect in Jones’ slaying, transgender activists are doubtful of police efforts to combat violence targeting them. At a D.C. Council hearing February 29, Jason Terry of the D.C. Trans Coalition told District officials MPD has “abdicated its responsibility to keep trans people in the District of Columbia safe.”
In a January interview with WTOP, MPD Chief Cathy Lanier said of the transgender community, “We’d like to see all those folks who are in that high-risk environment find ways to increase their safety, and help us out.” The statement, Terry said at the hearing, was taken to mean that police were placing the burden of public safety back on the transgender community. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice is looking into whether MPD has shown bias against investigating crimes targeting transgender victims.
Furr will be arraigned in D.C. Superior Court tomorrow in front of Judge Ann O’Regan Keary. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison.
