Tennessee National Guard members assigned to a federal anti-crime task force in Memphis fatally shot an armed 20-year-old man in the back in July, an autopsy report obtained by The Associated Press shows, contradicting police accounts that the man was facing the troops when they fired.
Authorities have said Tyrin Johnson turned toward guard members with a gun while running from them in the early morning hours after the Fourth of July holiday when he was fatally shot in the chest.
But according to an autopsy report shared Thursday by Johnson’s family, a single bullet went in the right side of his back and exited through his upper right chest. The autopsy findings, reported earlier by The Commercial Appeal newspaper, were prepared by the West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center Office of the Medical Examiner, which did not respond to a request for comment.
The guard members were assigned to the Memphis Safe Task Force, created by President Donald Trump, who last year sent troops and federal agents to Democratic-run cities that he described as overrun with crime. The task force was involved in four fatal shootings between May and July.
Johnson’s grandfather, Evaniel Johnson, said guard members had no justification to shoot his grandson in the back.
