A Memphis police officer has been fired and jailed without bond on charges of kidnapping and murdering a man while on duty, FOX13 reports.
Patric Ferguson (left) was arrested Sunday after surveillance footage captured the uniformed officer take 30-year-old Robert Howard (pictured right) out of a home in the 3500 block of Twain Street and force him at gunpoint into his patrol car on Jan. 6.
Ferguson, 29, drove to Frayser Boulevard and Denver Street, where body cam footage captured the cop fatally shoot Howard in the back seat of the patrol car.
Ferguson dropped off the body at an undisclosed location, then returned the next day with an accomplice, Joshua Rogers, who helped him dump the body off a bridge.
Howard’s body was fished out of the water by Memphis police on January 10 at Second Street near the Wolf River Bridge, police say.
Howard’s girlfriend filed a missing person’s report on Wednesday after she used an app to track his cell phone and found the phone at Lamar Avenue and Shelby Drive, according to WKYT.
Evidence on the victim’s phone led them to Ferguson who confessed to murdering Howard. Ferguson was immediately terminated and charged with first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping.
Rogers, 28, was charged with accessory after the fact for helping dispose of Howard’s body, police said. Both men were charged with abuse of a corpse, and fabricating and tampering with evidence, according to an affidavit.
Mayor Jim Strickland spoke exclusively to FOX13, saying he was “horrified” to learn of Ferguson’s crimes.
“It was good investigative work,” Strickland said. “We’ve got video of the actual murder and he confessed.”
Investigators built their murder case against Ferguson using surveillance footage and police body cam footage. A receipt from a hardware store revealed Ferguson purchased cinder blocks, chains and padlocks to weigh Howard’s body down when he threw him in the river.
A search of Ferguson’s phone revealed incriminating internet search history, including searches for “cleaning up crime scenes and how to destroy DNA evidence,” according to the affidavit.
Strickland told FOX13 he hopes Ferguson spends the rest of his life in prison.
