(CNN)– The man accused of killing an officer in Memphis, Tennessee, has surrendered to authorities, but the case is far from over, the city’s police chief said.
“This is just the first step in a very long healing process,” Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong told reporters Monday.
Tremaine Wilbourn, 29, turned himself in to federal marshals and was being questioned by homicide investigators Monday evening, Armstrong said. He’s expected to be arraigned on Tuesday.
Investigators, who’d warned that Wilbourn was armed and dangerous, had been working around the clock to track him down, the police chief said.
“I think he felt the walls closing in,” Armstrong said. “I think he thought that it would probably be in his best interest just to turn himself in.”
But even with the suspect behind bars, the police chief noted there’s a key question that remains in the case: Why was he on the streets in the first place?
“If he’s in jail Saturday night, then we’re not here today talking about the death of a police officer,” he said.
Wilbourn had been out on supervised release for a 121-month sentence for robbery.
