Police, angry crowd face off after Black man fatally shot in family’s front yard in Memphis by US Marshalls
Armed officers and an angry crowd faced off after a Tennessee man was fatally shot by U.S. Marshals in a working-class Memphis neighborhood.
People in the crowd threw rocks and bricks, with 25 officers suffering mostly minor injuries during the tense clash Wednesday night in the Frayser community in north Memphis.
Officers cordoned off several blocks near the scene. By 11 p.m., officers had used tear gas and most of the crowd dispersed, police director Michael Rallings said at a Thursday morning at a news conference. Three people were arrested.
Officers on horseback patrolled the area, and lines of police cars with flashing blue lights were parked along the street. An ambulance could be seen at the outer edge of the scene. A helicopter flew overhead as police cars trickled away. Residential streets were blocked, and a heavy police presence remained in the area Thursday.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said its agents were called to the scene of a shooting involving a regional anti-crime task force. TBI spokeswoman Keli McAlister said the Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force went to a Frayser home to look for a suspect with felony warrants. Marshals saw the man get into a vehicle and then proceed to ram police vehicles several times before exiting with a weapon, McAlister said. Police then opened fire, killing the man who died at the scene. McAlister did not say how many marshals fired or how many times the man was shot.
One local official identified the victim as Brandon Webber and said he was shot several times in his family’s front yard. Family members confirmed to the Daily Memphian that the 21-year-old Webber died.
In identifying Webber on Twitter early Thursday, Shelby County Commissioner and mayoral candidate Tami Sawyer said “Every life lost should matter…every single one. How many times will this be ok? It cannot continue to be.”
After the shooting, protesters began yelling at police and they threw rocks and bricks at officers. Police cars and a nearby fire station were damaged, Rallings said.
Officers donned protective riot gear as the situation escalated.
TBI is called in to investigate police-involved shootings by district attorneys in Shelby and other counties in the state. TBI investigators then give their report to the district attorney, who will decide whether to pursue charges against officers involved.
Rallings, the police director, implored residents to wait until the TBI finishes its investigation before spreading possible misinformation about the shooting. “I need everyone to stay calm,” he said.
While police have been supportive of past protests, Rallings said, he added that “we will not allow any acts of violence.”
Passion Anderson, a 34-year old student, brought her 13-year-old son to the scene early Thursday, after protesters had gone and the scene had calmed down. She grew up in Memphis, but left to Ohio before moving in November to the Frayser neighborhood, a mostly low- to middle-income area with modest single-family homes and apartments.
Anderson said she worried about her son’s safety every day in Memphis which like other large cities, struggles with violent crime.
“I just want him to see this, know what’s going on, to be conscious,” she said, sitting in the driver’ seat of her car, with her son in the passenger seat. “I fear for him all the time.”
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