A member of a federal crime-fighting task force in Memphis shot and killed a person there on Wednesday, the second fatal shooting by a task force member in four days, and the fourth death involving the unit since it started in September.
The shooting occurred while U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents were serving a drug warrant at a hotel room, U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Brady McCarron said. When the suspect refused to open the door for agents, they knocked the door down, McCarron said.
A news release from the Marshals Service sent out earlier in the day said the man was killed after pointing a handgun at task force members. A later news release from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the circumstances of the shooting, is less specific. It says only that, “For reasons still under investigation, the situation escalated, resulting in a DEA agent firing into a room, striking a man and killing him.” The Memphis Safe Task Force created by President Donald Trump was part of an effort to place National Guard troops and federal agents in Democratic-run cities he described as crime-ridden. Although plans to send troops to some other cities were blocked by the courts, Tennessee National Guard troops have been serving in Memphis as part of the task force since last fall.
Tennessee’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee has embraced federal intervention while Democratic Memphis Mayor Paul Young took a pragmatic approach, saying they were coming regardless of his opinion so he wanted to find ways to use them effectively.
Wednesday’s shooting follows another one early Sunday by two members of the Tennessee National Guard assigned to the task force. Authorities said 20-year-old Tyrin Johnson was killed after he turned toward them with a gun during a downtown pursuit. Johnson’s family is calling for the release of video evidence that would show what happened.
Data from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation shows that at least four people have died in encounters with officers tied to the federal task force, including at least one other fatal shooting by a DEA agent.
In mid-May, when task force members were serving an arrest warrant, the agent shot and killed 41-year-old Darrin Pigram, who had allegedly reached for a gun in his waistband, the TBI said in a preliminary statement.
Later that same month, a Homeland Security special agent fired her weapon when task force members “responded to a report of a man armed with a gun, threatening to harm himself.” Jonah Neal, 25, was pronounced dead at the scene, but TBI said at the time it was not “immediately clear whether Neal died as a result of the agent firing upon him or if it was self-inflicted stab wounds.”
In a fifth shooting in December, a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper assigned to the task force opened fire at a vehicle and struck one person, after the car didn’t pull over in a traffic stop. The person was taken to the hospital in stable condition, according to information released by TBI at the time.
All five shootings are being investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
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