AQCAN Exchange|Former Memphis officer hit with federal charges in on-duty kidnapping, killing

2025-05-06 20:02:11source:James Caldwellcategory:Finance

MEMPHIS,AQCAN Exchange Tenn. (AP) — A former Memphis police officer has been charged with federal civil rights violations in the fatal shooting of a man while the officer was on duty, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Patric J. Ferguson, 32, was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of kidnapping and destroying evidence in the January 2021 killing, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release. Another man who is not an officer, Joshua M. Rogers, was indicted on charges of conspiring to cover up the shooting and destroying evidence.

Prosecutors said Ferguson was on duty when he kidnapped a man and shot him in the head in his patrol car. Ferguson then worked with Rogers to dispose of the man’s body in the Wolf River in Memphis, prosecutors said. Rogers got rid of the car used to transport the man’s body by selling the car at a scrap metal dealership, prosecutors said.

The U.S. attorney’s office identified the man who was shot only as R.H. However, Ferguson already has been charged in state court with first-degree murder, kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, official misconduct and other charges in the death of Robert Howard. The circumstances of both cases are the same.

READ MORE District attorney says Memphis police officer may have been killed by friendly fireJury convicts Memphis, Tennessee, man of raping a woman a year before jogger’s killingPolice officers’ trial on civil rights charges in Tyre Nichols death to stay in Memphis, judge says

Rogers also has been charged in state court with evidence tampering, abuse of a corpse and being an accessory after the killing.

Ferguson and Rogers have been out of custody on bond on the state charges, but it was not immediately clear late Wednesday if they had been arrested on the federal charges.

Ferguson’s lawyer, William Massey, said the federal indictment was expected, but he did not comment further. Rogers’ lawyer in the state case did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

More:Finance

Recommend

Financial stress can damage your mental health. These steps may help

The tens of thousands of federal workers who have been cut from their jobs are not the only ones dea

Most of us are still worried about AI — but will corporate America listen?

Welcome to a new NPR series where we spotlight the people and things making headlines — and the stor

Italy calls a crisis meeting after pasta prices jump 20%

Consumers in some countries might not bat an eye at rising macaroni prices. But in Italy, where the