MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) released edited body camera footage on Thursday from the night fallen police Officer Peter Jerving was killed in the line of duty.
[Editor's note: A link to the video is provided below in this article. Viewer discretion is advised.]
The video is part of MPD's Community Briefing and was shared with the public on YouTube.
Milwaukee Police Officer Jerving died Tuesday, Feb. 7 after trying to arrest the suspect of an armed robbery. Police say Officer Jerving and his partner were working on the city's far north side when their suspect, 19-year-old Terrell I. Thompson, drove away.
Thompson was seen again on the city's south side near 14th and Cleveland. There was a foot chase and a struggle. During the struggle, both Officer Jerving and Thompson were shot. The suspect died at the scene. Officer Jerving later died at Froedtert Hospital.
The video shows Officer Jerving and his partner approaching Thompson near 14th and Cleveland before Thompson takes off.
"Don't run, let me see your hands," you can hear in the video.
The video then shows the officers chasing after Thompson. Due to snow on the ground, Thompson slips near a fence, allowing Officer Jerving's partner to grab hold of Thompson. At that moment in the video, a gun can be seen in Thompson's possession.
As Officer Jerving comes in to help arrest Thompson, you hear a gunshot in the video. It is not clear whether Officer Jerving was shot at that moment or where he may have been hit, but he goes back to help his partner. More shots are fired and then Officer Jerving can be heard breathing heavily in his body cam footage.
Officer Jerving was taken to the hospital where he later died and Thompson died at the scene.
Police also included a photo of Thompson's gun, which had an extended magazine attached.
The Community Briefing video was released to the public nearly two months after the incident. Though there is no policy currently in place, MPD says they try to release relevant video footage in the form of the Community Briefing within 45 days of an incident.
"In this case, given the circumstances, MPD was unable to meet that timeline," MPD said in a statement Thursday. "The final family notification was completed this afternoon and to be fully transparent to the public, we are releasing the briefing without any further delay."
The incident will be referred to the Milwaukee County DA's Office for review despite MPD saying only Officer Jerving and Thompson fired guns.
Officer Jerving, a lifelong Milwaukee resident, was 37 years old and had served in the Milwaukee Police Department for four years. Last year, he received an MPD Lifesaving Award for heroically providing life-saving care to a shooting victim "during extremely dangerous conditions."
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