“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in
America - mentally unstable cops”
D.C. Superior Court Judge O'Reagan Keary refused to
release Officer Kenneth Furr, who is awaiting trial on attempted murder
charges.
An off-duty D.C. police officer who was arrested last
August for allegedly firing his service revolver into a car in which three
transgender women and two male friends were seated was ordered held in jail on
Thursday while he awaits trial.
During a court status hearing on Thursday, May 24, D.C.
Superior Court Judge Ann O’Reagan Keary denied a request by attorneys
representing Officer Kenneth D. Furr that he be released or that the conditions
of his bond be changed.
A trial has been scheduled to begin Oct. 15.
Furr, a 21-year veteran of the police force, has been
held without bond since the time of his arrest on Aug. 26, 2011 on a charge of
assault with a dangerous weapon. A D.C. police arrest affidavit says witnesses saw Furr climb on the hood of a stopped car occupied by five
people near First and Pierce Streets, N.W., and fire several shots at the
occupants through the windshield.
Two of the women and one of the men in the car suffered
non-life threatening gunshot wounds in the incident, the affidavit says. Police
and the prosecutor in the case said later that the three could easily have been
killed in the shooting.
On March 7, a D.C. Superior Court Grand Jury handed down
a 9-count indictment against Furr, which includes six counts of assault with a
dangerous weapon, one count of assault with intent to kill while armed, and two
counts of solicitation for prostitution.
The affidavit says the incident began when Furr allegedly
solicited one of the women for sex at a nearby CVS drugstore and became angry
when she refused the offer. During the incident her male friend intervened on
her behalf. Furr later threatened the male friend with a gun when the two
crossed paths outside the store, according to the affidavit.
The male friend and the other victims followed Furr in
their car as Furr drove away from the store, saying they wanted to get his
license number and report him to police, the affidavit says. It says Furr
stopped his car and pulled out his gun when he noticed the other car was
following him. The car driven by the male friend of the trans women then crashed
into Furr’s car after the driver ducked for cover when he saw Furr brandishing
the gun, says the affidavit.
It says Furr responded by climbing on the hood of the car
occupied by the five victims and began firing his gun through the windshield.
Police initially charged Furr with driving while intoxicated, saying they
determined his blood alcohol level was above the legal limit. Authorities later
dropped that charge.
At an earlier hearing, Furr’s attorney said Furr was
acting in self-defense, saying he feared for his own safety after noticing that
the individuals with whom he got into a verbal altercation at the drugstore
were “stalking” him in their car.
Although the police affidavit says Furr solicited one of
the two trans women for sex at the start of the incident, the indictment
charges him with having “invited, enticed, offered, persuaded, and agreed with
[the two women] …to engage in prostitution…”
Transgender activists who know the two trans victims have
said the women were not engaging in prostitution and that Furr approached at
least one of them for a sexual encounter.
The incident outraged LGBT activists, who said it came at
a time when transgender women had been victims of assaults and violent hate
crimes in a number of previous incidents.
“This indicates that the prosecutors are getting serious
about our (LGBT community) complaints or that a reasonable plea agreement was
refused,” said transgender activist Jeri Hughes in commenting on the grand jury
charge against Furr of assault with intent to kill while armed.