A day after D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser released police body camera footage showing the fatal shooting of Terrence Sterling, the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. Sterling died at the hands of 27-year-old officer Brian Trainer, from gunshot wounds to the neck and back.
Two witnesses to the shooting that morning reported hearing two gunshots before seeing Sterling fall off his bike and onto the pavement. Both witnesses reportedly say Sterling’s hands were on the handlebars of the bike and he was facing the police cruiser that had just cut him off. Kandace Simms said she had just picked up a friend and was sitting in the right-hand lane waiting at the traffic light at Third and M streets.
“So I pulled up to the light and I was there by myself for some time and some cars were coming behind me, but then I saw a motorcycle come on the left of me and then the police car blocked the motorcycle, so they kind of came at the same exact time,” Simms told FOX 5. “The motorcycle was trying to speed off and drive away, but he couldn’t because he was kind of caught in between the sidewalk at the curb and the police car. 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.”
Simms said her windows were rolled down and she heard no commands coming from the officer in the cruiser. She said she saw the motorcycle strike the cruiser once.
“It did, but that is because they blocked him,” Simms said. “The police car wasn’t right there when I pulled up.”
Simms said she believes the collision looked unavoidable.
A second police officer, who was driving the cruiser and allegedly broke police protocol by using the vehicle as a barricade, has also been placed on leave in connection to this fatal shooting of the unarmed civilian.
