Second Memphis fatal shooting in 4 days by federal task force, officials say

A member of a federal crime-fighting task force in Memphis shot and killed a man there on Wednesday, the second fatal shooting by a task force member in four days.

The Wednesday shooting occurred while U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents were serving a drug warrant out of Shelby County at around 8:30 a.m. local time, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said. The suspect was in a hotel room and refused to open the door for agents, so they knocked the door down, U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Brady 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 state bureau, 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."

Authorities have not identified the man. He's at least the fourth person since May who died after being shot by a member of the task force, according to the state bureau.

No law enforcement officers were injured, the state bureau said. The DEA team included at least one local Memphis Police Department officer, McCarron said.

The Memphis Safe Task Force was created last year by President Trump as 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 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.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, two Guardsmen fatally shot 20-year-old Tyrin Johnson after they said he turned toward them with a gun during a downtown pursuit.

Johnson's family says they were told by the TBI that he was shot twice in the chest. Evaniel Johnson said his grandson had taken classes at Tennessee State University, was the father of a young child and was preparing to help lead the family business. 

The grandfather called on authorities to release any video evidence of the shooting.

"Show me the video," he told The Associated Press. "Please show me that — and then I'm OK. Until you show me that, I'm gonna fight and advocate for my grandson until there's no breath in me."

On May 13, a member of the Memphis Safe Task Force also shot and killed another person while serving an arrest warrant, the state bureau reported. Forty-one-year-old Darrin Pigram had reached for a gun in his waistband before a DEA agent opened fire, officials said.

Just over a week later, on May 21, a Homeland Security Investigations special agent within the task force fatally shot 25-year-old Jonah Neal, the state bureau said. Neal was armed with a gun and was threatening to harm himself, the state bureau said. The agency said it was unclear whether Neal died as a result of the gunshot, or if it was self-inflicted stab wounds. 

TBI has been charged with investigating all the shootings and will turn the results over to the local district attorney general.