A 20-year-old man died Sunday after Tennessee National Guard troops opened fire during a chase in Memphis, marking another controversial moment in the state's ongoing military deployment to the city.
The shooting happened around 4am as soldiers responded to reports of gunfire. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Tyrin Johnson turned and pulled a gun on the troops, prompting two National Guard soldiers to fire. Johnson was struck and killed at the scene, with two National Guard medical specialists attempting first aid before his death. No one else was injured.
The National Guard deployment itself has been contentious since Governor Bill Lee ordered troops into Memphis in October at the direction of President Donald Trump's federal crime initiative targeting Democratic-led cities. The move faced immediate legal challenges, with a lawsuit claiming it violated the state constitution. A temporary halt was imposed in November, but the Tennessee Court of Appeals ultimately cleared the deployment in April.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat who opposed the Guard deployment, called the shooting an "unfortunate incident" but said he would reserve judgment pending the TBI investigation's conclusion. Young and other city leaders had argued that crime rates in Memphis were already declining when the Guard arrived, characterizing the move as a Republican attempt to strip local autonomy from Democratic-controlled cities.
The identities of the two soldiers who fired remain undisclosed. Lieutenant Colonel Darrin Haas, spokesman for the Tennessee National Guard, declined to identify the personnel involved.
This marks at least the fourth officer-involved shooting connected to the Memphis Safe Taskforce, a joint federal and local operation. Two previous shootings occurred in May without National Guard involvement. The TBI also linked the taskforce to an October shooting but did not specify which agencies were involved.
Johnson's family described a young man with promise. His cousin, Terracle Nelson, said authorities told the family Johnson had been shot twice in the chest. His grandfather, Evaniel Johnson, revealed that Tyrin had attended Tennessee State University, had a young child, and was preparing to help lead the family's construction business.
"I believed in him, and I know he still had so much life ahead of him," Evaniel Johnson said. "The heartbreaking reality is that he will never have the chance to enjoy what we were building together. That is a pain no grandparent should ever have to endure."
The grandfather said he wanted to review investigative findings and any available video before forming conclusions about the shooting.
Author James Rodriguez: "Another shooting tied to a deployment that wasn't wanted in the first place raises hard questions about whether this approach is making Memphis safer or just adding to the pain."
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