The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating after a man was shot while law enforcement attempted to serve him a warrant.
The man died on Wednesday night after he was shot multiple times by Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force, a U.S. Marshals organization, reports The Washington Post. Law enforcement wouldn’t identify the man but family members identified him as 20-year-old Brandon Webber.
The shooting happened around 7 p.m. in the Frayser neighborhood while the Marshals were helping the Memphis Police Department serve Webber warrants related to multiple felonies.
MEDIA: TBI Agents are responding to scene of an officer-involved shooting in the 2000 block of Durham in Memphis involving members of the Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force, US Marshal Service. PIO @TBIKeli is headed to the scene & will provide additional info when possible pic.twitter.com/ZR3BDtTKje
— TBI (@TBInvestigation) June 13, 2019
"While attempting to stop the individual he reportedly rammed his vehicle into the officers’ vehicles multiple times before exiting with a weapon,” the TBI said in a press release. “The officers fired striking and killing the individual. No officers were injured.”
Demetrick Skinner, his cousin, and Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer both told The Daily Memphian Webber was shot about 20 times. The father of three succumbed to his injuries in his family’s front yard. In a video posted on Twitter, a man claiming to be Webber’s cousin filmed the police forming a barricade as angry residents shouted and emoted in front of them.
@CityOfMemphis police shot some man and left him for dead and didn’t get him in the ambulance just left him in the grass pic.twitter.com/Zt3quRs77v
— 「????????」- $ADxVisions (@GxdCxmplex) June 13, 2019
“My cousin down there, laying in the street!” he yelled. “Laying in the yard!”
The shooting led to heated protests and tense encounters between the police and angry citizens. At least two dozen police officers were injured after protesters threw concrete rocks at them. People also spat at the officers and damaged police cruisers.
Memphis mayor Jim Strickland said the behavior was “unwarranted” and praised law enforcement for their “professionalism and incredible restraint.”
Other politicians were more sympathetic.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to all involved in the incident in Frayser," State Rep. Antonio Parkinson said. "The Frayser community is comprised of good, hard working people who love their community. The community wants answers into tonight's incident. We are asking for calm and restraint by all and complete transparency in the investigation of tonight's officer involved shooting."
Sawyer, who is running for mayor, understood why the people of Frayser are angry.
Don’t judge Frayser without asking a community how it feels to mourn their youth over and over again. What do people do with their pain and trauma when it gets to be too much, when a city has ignored them, when their loss is too great and they can no longer yell at the sky?
— Tami Sawyer (@tamisawyer) June 13, 2019
“Don’t judge Frayser without asking a community how it feels to mourn their youth over and over again,” she tweeted. “What do people do with their pain and trauma when it gets to be too much, when a city has ignored them, when their loss is too great and they can no longer yell at the sky?”