No Bail for Cop in Trans Shooting
Judge keeps Furr in custody, sets status hearing for October
The off-duty police officer arrested for allegedly shooting at a car containing two transgender women and three others was denied bond at a preliminary status hearing today in D.C. Superior Court.
Judge Ann O’Regan Keary said she found probable cause to believe that Metropolitan Police Department Officer Kenneth Furr committed two separate assaults with a dangerous weapon on Aug. 26 and ordered him to be held without bail.
Keary said she had weighed the evidence from testimony given by MPD First District Detective James Freeman and the fact that some of the victims of the shooting admitted to drinking or using marijuana prior to the incident.
However, even with Furr’s lack of criminal history, his longstanding ties to the community and his 21-year career with MPD did not rebut the presumption that he could pose a danger to the community.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Worm, arguing on behalf of the government, said that because the two assaults, the finding that Furr had a high blood-alcohol level hours after the incident, and that he had a prior arrest in 2004 for driving under the influence showed there were ”no conditions or combinations of conditions that could ensure the safety of the community.”
According to charging documents made public Aug. 27 at Furr’s arraignment, Furr allegedly shot two transgender women and another victim seated in a car early Friday, Aug. 26, at First and Pierce Streets NW.
One male victim was shot and taken to George Washington University Hospital in serious condition, while the two transgender women who were shot were taken to Howard University Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
MPD officers responding to the scene of the shooting smelled alcohol on Furr’s breath. Furr was later tested with a blood-alcohol level of .15.
Furr’s lawyer, Harold Martin, argued that Furr be released on personal recognizance or into a monitored release program. During his cross-examination of Freeman, Martin tried to point out inconsistencies in the testimony of the shooting victims. Martin also tried to raise the issue of the gender of the victims, but was prevented from doing so after Worm objected to his question, which Keary sustained.
Keary has scheduled a felony status hearing for Oct. 7.
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