News / Society

African American police officer killed off-duty

Monday, 12 October 2015 9:07 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 12 October 2015 9:07 AM ]

Tennessee police officer Terence Oldrige was killed by multiple shots on Sunday.

An African American police officer has been killed with multiple gunshots in Memphis, Tennessee, US police say.

The incident took place on Sunday, when officer Terence Oldrige was shot and killed for unknown reasons while on his way to work.

The shooting was reported to the police around 13 p.m. Sunday. Oldrige was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.

The 31-year-old officer joined the city’s law enforcement in September and left behind a four-month pregnant wife, Memphis Police Department Director Toney Armstrong said.

Armstrong added that details about the case were “sketchy” and “there are more questions than we have answers right now."

According to the residents in the area, the officer was involved in a fight with a man who was washing his car before the shooting. Neighbors said the brawl ended after at least 15 gun shots were heard.

Police took the suspect into custody, but no charges were filed against him.

Oldrige was the fourth Memphis police officer to be killed in the past four years. The last incident was on August 1, where Sean Bolton, another officer, was shot dead in a traffic stop.

This picture, published on social media, shows police presence at the scene of the Memphis shooting.

"Please continue to pray for this police department," Armstrong told reporters outside the hospital where Olridge died. "It wasn't very long ago that I stood probably in very close proximity to where I'm standing now, and I said something very, very similar to what I'm saying here.”

"There's nothing I can add other than pray for the family of this young man, and I emphasize he was a young man, relatively new to the department, so pray for him, his family, and for the department and for the city as a whole," said Mayor A.C. Wharton Jr. in a joint news conference with Armstrong.

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