May 9 (UPI) — A former Memphis police office has been charged with murder and kidnapping over the fatal on-duty shooting of a man in 2021.
Patric Ferguson, 32, was charged Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Memphis, Tenn., with an eight-count indictment, the Justice Department said in a press release. It also charges Joshua Rogers with accessory after the fact for helping Ferguson cover up the crime.
Ferguson, who had been a Memphis police officer since October 2018, is accused of shooting 30-year-old Robert Howard on Jan. 5, 2021.
He was previously indicted for the crime by the district attorney in Shelby County, Tenn., where he faces first-degree murder and other felony charges.
The district attorney’s office has said that Ferguson told investigators that he abducted Howard from his residence at gunpoint and killed him in the back of his patrol car.
Ferguson then allegedly disposed of Howard’s body in Memphis’ Wolf River with the help of Rogers, who federal prosecutors also said sold the car used to transport Howard’s body to a scrap metal dealership as part of the crime.
Rogers has also been charged in Shelby County with counts of accessory after the fact, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence.
According to a police report produced following the shooting, Memphis officers learned of the crime on Jan. 6 at about 8:30 p.m. when Howard’s partner called the authorities to report a missing person.
Following a review of the evidence in the case, Memphis police officers arrested Ferguson on a slew of charges. Howard’s body was recovered from the river days later, police said.