It was a late Saturday night on October 27th, 1990, when Winnebago County Sheriff deputies pulled over a young mother of two for speeding. This woman would tell the sheriffs there was a man that just moments before had come to her house in a ski mask with a gun. The mother grabbed her two children and packed them into the car when David Walker fired two shots as she drove the car away.
The deputies immediately informed the Rockford Police Department which led to Terry Peterson going to the residence of the young woman.
Then assistant deputy chief of operations Dominic Iasparro - who is now credited as the ‘creator’ of one of the most violent police forces in the country The Rockford SCOPE team - stated “Peterson fired at his first opportunity. If he waited to see if the man shot at him first, it would have been too late.”
This shooting would be justified concurrently with the police shooting of Aaron Spears that took place on November 10th, 1990.
Peterson less than six months later would be placed on paid leave after being involved in a chase of a suspect that went from Janesville to Rockford back to Wisconsin then to Rockford again where the individual crashed on Mulberry Street.
The individual, Jason Churchill, filed allegations that after he had crashed, a police officer that he was unable to see ( assumed to be Peterson ) ‘smashed his head against the cement seven or eight times’. He was hospitalized for a depressed skull fracture.
The allegations by Jason Churchill alone did not prompt any response from the Rockford police department. It wasn’t until another officer said they ‘might’ve’ seen Peterson hit him with a gun.
In June of 1991, Terry Peterson was cleared to return to work after investigations by then states attorney Paul Logli and then police chief William Fitzpatrick.
This was the second police shooting of 1990 and second deadly force incident of the 90’s.
It was the third deadly force incident under Mayor Charles Box.