An autopsy released this week showed that a man killed by National Guard troops in Memphis in July was shot in the back. The report contradicted initial police reports about the encounter and reignited anger among residents and officials already opposed to the federal task force tackling crime in the city.
Officials had said two Guard members, who were working with the Memphis Safe Task Force, shot the man, Tyrin Johnson, 20, after they joined police officers who were responding to reports of gunfire and chasing him on foot in the early hours of July 5. According to the version of events by law enforcement described in the autopsy, Mr. Johnson was shot once in the chest after he had turned toward law enforcement and pulled a gun.
The autopsy showed the gunshot wound was in Mr. Johnson’s back, and that the bullet exited through his right upper chest. There was no soot or muzzle imprint, indicating that the bullet was not fired close to Mr. Johnson’s body, the report said. The report also noted Mr. Johnson was found with a handgun magazine with rounds.
The autopsy, conducted by the medical examiner at the West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center and shared by a family lawyer, declared Mr. Johnson’s death a homicide.
The findings, first reported by The Commercial Appeal, “reinforce the serious concerns” Mr. Johnson’s family and supporters have about the incident, said André Wharton, a lawyer for the family, in a statement. And it “only further underscores the devastating nature of this encounter.”
Mr. Johnson was one of at least four people killed in altercations with law enforcement working with the Memphis Safe Task Force.
The task force has been in Memphis since last fall, part of a surge of law enforcement sent by the Trump administration to Democratic-led cities. In Memphis, the operation was framed as a crime-fighting initiative where federal, state and local law enforcement all collaborated.
No charges have been filed in the case. A spokesman for the Memphis Safe Task Force declined to comment, citing an ongoing state-led investigation, but said that National Guard patrols were paused as of Friday. It was unclear when they would resume.
Representatives for the Tennessee National Guard did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Memphis task force has been a divisive presence in a majority-Black city that has long struggled with both persistent high rates of crime and discriminatory, heavy-handed policing. Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat, has supported allowing Memphis police officers to work in tandem with federal agents and Tennessee Highway Patrol officers, but he has expressed concerns with National Guard troops supporting the effort.
The task force has made more than 2,000 arrests after Mr. Trump signed an executive order establishing the group in September. Crime has dropped since it took hold, but the task force’s critics have argued that crime had already started to decrease after spiking during the early years of the coronavirus pandemic.
Democratic lawmakers said the autopsy was further evidence that the task force was causing more harm in the city. There is an ongoing lawsuit against leaders of the task force, accusing them of retaliating against residents working to document arrests and detainment of undocumented immigrants.
“I am asking the same question every Memphian is asking: How does a man get shot in the back while allegedly turning toward the people who shot him?” said State Senator Raumesh Akbari, a Democrat. She added, “Memphians want to be safe, but an approach that increases tension and leaves families without straight answers is not public safety — it is a threat to it.”
Senator Marsha Blackburn, the Republican nominee for governor, is among those who have defended the task force’s presence earlier, including earlier this month on social media.
“The Memphis Safe Task Force is delivering real results, and we have the momentum to make Memphis the safest city in America,” she said.
National Guard troops and federal immigration agents have been pulled back from most other Democratic-led cities, after a flurry of deployments in the first year of the Trump administration. But they have remained in Washington, D.C., where the federal government has outsized power, and Memphis, where Republican leaders have embraced President Trump’s aggressive tactics toward addressing crime.
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