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Fourth person killed by agents from Trump’s Memphis anticrime taskforce
The Guardian • • general
Key Points:
- Federal agents from the DEA and Memphis Safe Task Force killed a man during a warrant operation at a Memphis motel, marking the fourth officer-involved death since the taskforce's inception in September.
- The taskforce was established by Donald Trump’s executive order last year amid claims of rising crime in Democratic-run cities, with all four deaths occurring in the past two months.
- The US Marshals Service stated the man pointed a handgun at officers after verbal commands to surrender, prompting officers to discharge their firearms; the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is probing the incident.
- Despite a prior decline in violent crime before the taskforce’s creation, Tennessee’s governor activated the National Guard to patrol Memphis for 10 months, a move challenged unsuccessfully by local activists.
- Recent related fatalities include the National Guard shooting of Tyrin Johnson on June 5, and two earlier taskforce-involved shootings in May, highlighting ongoing tensions around federal anticrime efforts in Memphis.
