Memphis anti police riot

Post Reply New Topic

At least 24 Memphis Police Department officers were injured during a large protest Wednesday night, Mayor Jim Strickland says. The violence erupted after officers of the U.S. Marshals Service shot and killed Brandon Webber, 20.

The shooting occurred around 7 p.m. local time, as officers from the U.S. Marshals Service as part of the Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force tried to take a man into custody. When the officers approached the man, law enforcement officials said, he was getting into his car in the Frayser community in northern Memphis, Tenn.

That man was Webber, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the case. The agency says he was "wanted on multiple warrants."

When the officers tried to stop Webber, "he reportedly rammed his vehicle into the officers' vehicles multiple times before exiting with a weapon," the TBI says.

"The officers fired striking and killing the individual," according to the TBI.

Residents began to gather in the street, looking for answers, reports local TV news Fox 13. Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer was among the first officials to identify the slain man publicly. She also said the local community has a reason to distrust the police.

In another post, Sawyer says, "Don't judge Frayser without asking a community how it feels to mourn their youth over and over again.

As residents gathered in the street near where the shooting occurred, police formed a human wall. Officers repeatedly ordered people off the streets. Within hours, however, violence broke out and police deployed riot shields.

The situation escalated as people in the crowd began throwing rocks and bricks at officers, according to Memphis police. Around 10 p.m. local time, police began using tear gas against the protesters, according to the Daily Memphian.

Six wounded officers were taken to the hospital, Strickland says, adding that at least two journalists were also hurt and "multiple" police cars were vandalized.

"A concrete wall outside a business was torn down. The windows were broken out at fire station 31," Strickland says on Facebook.

Riots genuinely disgust me. It doesn't matter what message you're trying to get across, or how important said message is.
Once you start attacking police unprovoked and/or harming property, you do not deserve to be heard. If you do either of those, you're morally wrong. Period.

A man who was killed by U.S. Marshals in Tennessee on Wednesday night, which sparked protests that injured dozens of police officers and sheriff's deputies, was wanted for stealing a car and shooting a man in Mississippi, authorities said.

U.S. Marshals were in Memphis to carry out arrest warrants issued out of Hernando, Mississippi, for aggravated assault, conspiracy and armed robbery, DeSoto County District Attorney General John Champion told reporters at a news conference Thursday afternoon.

The victim of the shooting in Mississippi had placed an ad on Facebook for a vehicle and had been negotiating with the man who was killed by authorities in Memphis, identified as 20-year-old Brandon Webber. On June 3, Webber traveled to Hernando where he and the victim took the car for a test drive, Champion said.

Webber then allegedly told the victim that he wanted to see what the car could do, and after the victim got out of the car, Webber shot him five times, Champion said. The victim is alive but is still in the hospital.

Officers with the U.S. Marshals Service attempted to stop Webber as he was getting into the vehicle outside a home in the Frayser area of north Memphis on Wednesday night. He allegedly rammed the car multiple times into the officers' vehicles and then got out holding a weapon. The officers fired at Webber, killing him, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the shooting.

No officers were injured in the incident.

TBI said the investigation remains active and ongoing and it will share its findings with the district attorney general