MEMPHIS, Tenn. — WREG is looking into the background of Tremaine Wilbourn, the man police say shot and killed a Memphis police officer.
Wilbourn is no stranger to trouble and had only been out of prison one year and a month to the day of the shooting.
Memphis Police said Wilbourn is a threat to society because he’s armed and dangerous.
He has put people in harm’s way before. He held up a bank in Covington in 2005 when he was 19.
A special FBI task force arrested him, and a judge sentenced him to 10 years in the federal penitentiary.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons released Wilbourn July 1, 2014, just a little more than a year before this shooting.
He was put on supervised release, or probation, for three years. The conditions of his release are that he would not associate with people engaged in criminal activity and could not use or even be around drugs.
Those are three conditions Officer Sean Bolton might have caught Wilbourn violating during the fatal traffic stop.
The U.S. Marshals Service is issuing a $10,000 reward for his capture, and the mayor asked the city council to match it.
“I have requested City Council Chairman Myron Lowery, and he has agreed, to ask the Council to post an award in a similar amount of $10,000,” Mayor A C Wharton said.
If you have any information about his whereabouts, call CrimeStoppers at 528-CASH.
