DC Police Chief Smith discusses the line-of-duty death of Officer Wayne David

I'm Pamela Smith chief of police for the Metropolitan Police Department I wanted to stop by and just kind of give you an update on on what occurred yesterday I don't think I need to repeat what happened um I just returned this morning I was on the west coast attending the Naval Postgraduate School of executive leaders um along with many other law enforcement colleagues across the US uh I was in close contact throughout the entire uh day yesterday with respect to the tragedy the line of duty death of investigator investigator Wayne David um assistant chief Carol did an excellent job yesterday with ensuring that all the all of the necessary Resources with respect to what occurred yesterday was uh in place and available um I was in close communication with him as I was also in close communication with mayor Muriel Bowser throughout throughout the entire ordeal today I want everyone to know that the members of the Metropolitan Police Department and this community we are hurting this is hard not only for investigator David's family but it's also very very hard for the members of the Metropolitan Police Department investigator David spent 25 years in this community serving and protecting members residents visitors here in the district of Colombia and what a tragedy it is for him to do the job that he loves every day and again we we every single day trying to get these guns off the street and that was one of the things that he was very very passionate about and so today I want today to be about investigator David I want you to remember him if if you know him his smile his passion for this job the passion for the community he's lived his entire life here in the district of Colombia he grew up here he was an honorable man I had the pleasure of meeting him and spending time with him last month during one of our retirement ceremonies affable uh not really the rough and rugged kind of police officers that we might see from time to time doing the kind of investigative violent crime suppression but he's he was one who served with passion and I want him to be remembered that way I don't want him to be remembered any other way than someone who was who is a family man he has two children I've had the opportunity to speak to both his son and his daughter um who are traumatized at this moment I've also had the opportunity to speak to his brother who is a a former retired Metropolitan Police Department Officer officer strawberg and again it's a tragedy this is something that you know as police officers we wake up every day we put the uniform on we do this job we know what the inherent risk are but again when we lose someone in the line of duty it is a tragedy for every law enforcement Personnel that do this work I want to also take a moment just to thank all of the law enforcement Partners who have reached out countless countless law enforcement Partners across this country have reached out to extend their condolences and offered their support and their services uh we appreciate you we know that we are not the only police agency who have had to encounter this kind of tragedy and so we join you and letting you know that that we appreciate you appreciate you and appreciate you reaching out to us and just giving us that comfort and support that we need right now I'll take any questions that you might have at this time and what what I can say to you is that you know any time there is an accidental discharge we have to go through an investigative process so at this point I cannot tell you what exactly occurred because I was not there but we will have our Internal Affairs division conduct an investigation into what actually happened uh by looking at body warn camera video speaking to some of the offices that were on scene um and then we will we will determine what happened and if there were any recommend ation so I think what we want to do right now is to find the individual we have put out some really good images with respect to that um the Metropolitan Police Department the FBI and ATF are offering a $50,000 reward for anyone who can provide us with any information that's Le that's going to lead us to the individual who discarded that weapon and my ask of him and anyone who knows him is that turns himself in I'm not sure at this time I can't hear you well I mean I I think there's specific General protocols for how we retrieve and recover weapons I'm not sure if it it's related to um examples or scenarios of going in a in a drain but again what I what I shared with you before is that we will conduct an investigation to determine exactly what what occurred yes ma'am all of our officers are required to have their body bodyw warn camera active uh whenever they engaged in any activity so I have not had the chance to review it because immediately when I was made aware of the fact that one of our officers was shot I changed my flight plans and I took a red eye here to DC got off a plane at 7 o' this morning went to my home got dressed and I came to work so that I could be here with my team yes sir thank you no that is correct mayor Muriel Bowser has ordered all government buildings to have their Flags flown at half staff it is a it is a line of duty death and yes his name will be edged on the memorial behind me yeah well I I don't think I think we all go through our 36 weeks of basic police training but then you have other officers who are violent crime suppression division officers officers who who are in some type of specialty who go through a specialized training and yes it is a risk we know the risk that that it takes to to do this job but yet at the same time these officers are resilient and they get up every single day to do this job and I often times tell people you can talk about me but don't talk about the officers I know exactly how hard they work every single day to do this job and to take these guns off the street um one of the things that we can say about investigator uh David was that he was he was instrumental very professional very poised but also very instrumental in recovering a lot of uh illegal weapons off of the streets here in the District of Columbia and trust me his his Acumen and his professionalism for being able to do that job will be sorely missed here within our agency oh absolutely absolutely he's been on the job for 20 he had been on the job for 25 years I mean that's a long time I mean 25 years that that's and he he 52 years old you do the math let me let me ask get to her because you asked me a question already yes at this time it's still under investigation our our Investigative Services Bureau are certainly doing everything they can to track down not only who the individual is that jumped on the motorcycle but the person that allowed him to jump on the back and ride off with them yes ma'am oh AB absolutely yeah I I'll have um um assistant chief Wright come and talk about his experiences with him um as you heard Chief Carol State on yesterday um that he was someone that I'm going to assume trained him um um since he's been a member of this agency and so so again the memory of investigator David is is is fluid throughout our agency but also with a lot of our other uh Federal partners and local Partners I've been receiving a lot of um um accolades with respect to the work that he did and and the the his relationship and his professionalism with working with a lot of lot of the police agencies it's my understanding he had been in in the violent crime suppression division for over a decade so he has built many relationships with respect to the work that he do but I'll allow assistant chief Wright to come and share a few few words if you can thank you uh Chief Smith it's a great question so I was also a part of um what is now called vcsd uh it was nsid at the time back in 1997 98 and I was a part of the gun Recovery Unit and so I started there and uh as I moved into investigations that's when investigator David would come along uh and start his career there and so we exchanged antidotes and stories on not only how to best recover firearms and do it safely but one of the things because we were both DC kids Is How We Do It professionally uh and that was always top of mind for him and for me uh is that we treated everybody with the utmost respect whether uh we were about to place him under arrest where we were about to recover a firearm for him but that was always top of mind for him and I think that's a great distinction from him and I think a lot of officers do that but that's was something that he taught that was something that he handed down over the years to some of the young officers that came in and so if it's anything that because he uh recovered as you said hundreds of guns hundreds of guns uh yes he will be known for that but it was how he conducted himself in those recoveries it was how he led the other officers that were part of his unit that I think uh served as a great distinction between him and some of the other uh folks that I'm sure in time will be able to mature into that kind of class of of Officer I I'll stand by and let uh the executive Chief also share sure sure good afternoon everybody again my name is Jeff K I am the executive assistant chief um I had the opportunity to to meet investigator Wayne Dave in 200 3 when he was my training officer and I first joined the police department everything that investigator David did day in and day out especially when I was a young officer was was teach us you know how to safely not only to respond to calls for service but how to interact with the community he as as Chief right and the chief mentioned he grew up here in Washington in DC and to him this wasn't just a job every day he went out he engaged the kids they were out there trying to put them on the right path talking to people making sure they were doing the right things and if he s saw illegal actions or opportunities he would try to intervene with that over the years he developed especially not only for recovering Firearms but stolen Autos he was always known to be around with a smile a cheerful attitude no matter what the situation was no matter how long the day was no matter what was going on Wayne was always a ray of sunshine and willing to help out other people and help them learn and that's something that as he transitioned from the Third District where he trained me at over to our narcotics and special investigations division which is now our a vcsd is he continue with that Wayne had 25 years on a lot of the folks that are inside vcsd have less time on so he's also there to help train and show them the appropriate way to to lawfully and safely recover Firearms interact with community and really make our community safer so it's just a great tragedy to our community it's a great tragedy to the police department with the loss of Wayne um and that's all I can really say any final questions hey more yep well I don't have any thoughts at this moment Mark to be honest I'm I'm really trying to wrap my head around what happened um it it's such a such a tragedy um and it's one that I think we're we're still in shock if that makes sense um so I really haven't had a chance to really put any deep thought into whether or not um what type of charges would be le leveraged if you will against a suspect uh but what we need him to do is turn himself in yeah and so you know ATF one of the things I can say about the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearm um agencies is that they are truly a a great partner um in these types of cases and yes they did uh have they have possession of the of the firearm at this time what we do know is that the serial number was was um scratched off of the weapon and so we're doing some they're doing some work to try to determine um where the gun derived from yes sir no I do not no I cannot I can tell you that he showed up for work as he do every day uh diligent and to do the work that he's been trained to do but more importantly to do the work that he's been passionate about doing for 25 years thank you guys all right thank you everyone