A retired Washington, D.C. police lieutenant shot and killed a police officer Thursday during a training session inside a city library, police said.
In a news conference Thursday afternoon, a Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee said said the shooting happened in the city’s Anacostia Library, a public branch of the city’s library system. Maurica Manyan, 25, of Indian Head, Maryland, who worked as a public library special police officer, was allegedly shot by Jesse Porter, 58, in the incident. Porter was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter, police told News4.
“Officers arrived at this location and found a library police officer unconscious suffering from a gunshot wound,” Contee said. “What we’ve learned so far, is that there was a training that was taking place.”
The female officer, described as a “library police officer,” was pronounced dead at an area hospital. Other library police officers, as well as the retired lieutenant, were being interviewed late Thursday afternoon, according to officials.
Metropolitan Police officials were working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia in the investigation into exactly what happened. Porter was conducting training on how to use an extended baton made by a company called ASP, Contee said.
“The training was being conducted by a retired member of the Metropolitan Police Department, a retired lieutenant, who was conducting training in one of the training rooms, and at some point … at the end of the training, the retired lieutenant fired a shot from a weapon that struck this police officer,” Congee said.
Sources told News4 that Porter drew a handgun to illustrate how quickly it could be done, but fired one shot, striking the special police officer in the chest. Homicide detectives were called to the scene and were looking into why the trainer had live ammunition.
“I don’t have answers as to why the live firearm was in ASP baton training,” Contee said.