MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — An ex-convict was found guilty of first-degree murder and other charges Sunday in the fatal shooting of a police officer in Memphis, Tennessee.
FILE – In this Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2015, file photo, Tremaine Wilbourn appears in court in Memphis, Tenn. News outlets report a jury in state court convicted Wilbourn on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in the killing of Officer Sean Bolton in August 2015. Wilbourn also was found guilty of carjacking and weapons charges. (Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal via AP, File)
A jury in state court convicted Tremaine Wilbourn on Sunday in the August 2015 killing of Officer Sean Bolton. Wilbourn also was found guilty of carjacking and weapons charges, news outlets reported.
Bolton, who was white, was one of four police officers to be fatally shot in Memphis since July 2011. Wilbourn is black.
Police said Bolton interrupted a drug deal in a car Wilbourn occupied in a residential neighborhood. Wilbourn got out of the vehicle, and he and Bolton got into a physical struggle, according to authorities. Wilbourn took out a gun and shot Bolton, police said.
An autopsy report shows Bolton was shot eight times.
Wilbourn already has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison on weapons charges. His lawyer said his client did not intend to kill Bolton. In court documents during his federal trial, prosecutors said Wilbourn carjacked a vehicle a few minutes after the shooting, telling the motorist that “he needed the car because he had just shot a police officer.”
Wilbourn led officers on an intense, two-day manhunt before turning himself in to U.S. marshals.
At the time of the shooting, Wilbourn was on federal probation after serving prison time for armed bank robbery.
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thats a surprise. no way he carjacked and bank robbed. I’m sure he was an upstanding citizen. He just shot the officer on accident. We should have marches because his life matters more than the cop he killed. What a waste of life. Black culture is ruining America.