The Third Fatal Shooting Tied to Trump’s Memphis Task Force Raises Urgent Questions About Oversight and Transparency

In the early hours of July 5, 2026, as Fourth of July fireworks faded over downtown Memphis, Tennessee National Guard soldiers fatally shot 20-year-old Tyrin Johnson during a foot chase. Now his grandfather is demanding one simple thing: show the family the video. Johnson’s death has become the latest flashpoint in the national debate over President Trump’s unprecedented deployment of military forces into American cities — and it raises urgent questions about oversight, body cameras, and whether a young Black man’s life will ever receive a full accounting.

What Happened in the Early Morning Hours of July 5

Police say officers were responding to calls of shots fired in downtown Memphis just before 4 a.m. local time when they saw “an armed male carrying a handgun.”

The man, identified by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation as 20-year-old Tyrin Johnson, fled on foot, pursued by Memphis police officers along with Tennessee National Guard soldiers who are assigned to the area.

As police and National Guard soldiers assigned to the area were chasing him, the man “turned toward NG members with his weapon,” and the soldiers “discharged their weapons,” police stated.

“For reasons under investigation, the situation escalated, resulting in two National Guard soldiers firing upon Johnson, striking and killing him,” TBI said, adding that no law enforcement officers were hurt.

Johnson died at the scene after two National Guard medical specialists attempted first aid, Guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Darrin Haas said in a statement.

Johnson’s family says they were told by the TBI that he was shot twice in the chest.

The TBI confirmed that “preliminary information indicates the shooting happened at approximately 4:00 AM ET near the intersection of Ida B. Wells Avenue and Union Avenue,” the bureau said in a statement.

The TBI says it is investigating the incident at the request of Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy.

Once the investigation is complete, agents will submit their findings to Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy, who will determine whether the use of force was justified.

Who Was Tyrin Johnson?

To law enforcement, Tyrin Johnson was an armed man who fled and then turned his weapon toward soldiers. To his family, he was something else entirely: a son, a father, a student, and a young man trying to build a life.

He was enrolled in Tennessee State University from August 2023 to May 2024, according to university spokesperson Angel Higgins.

Evaniel Johnson said his grandson had taken classes at Tennessee State University, was the father of a young child, and was preparing to help lead the family business.

He said his grandson was also passionate about making music.

Tyrin Johnson did not appear to have a criminal history besides a handful of traffic violations, according to a review of online federal and state court records and Memphis and Nashville courts.

He carried a gun for protection after he was “jumped” in Nashville recently, his grandfather told the AP.

On the Fourth of July, Evaniel Johnson said his family had gathered on his back porch in Nashville to play cards. He wished his grandson had stayed with them. Instead, Tyrin Johnson ended up in Memphis.

“He was down there like all the rest of the people trying to enjoy the Fourth of July,” Evaniel Johnson said. “His future was buying homes, living life, taking care of his little baby. He had a future. It’s gone now.”

A Grandfather’s Demand: Show Us the Video

The grandfather of the man fatally shot by Tennessee National Guard troops is demanding video footage of the incident.
His demand cuts to the core of what makes this case so troubling: there may be no video to show.

Johnson’s untimely death shows why Memphians and their camera phones are critical in this moment. Because National Guard troops often do not wear body cameras, the community’s ability to document is key to deterring devastating losses like this one,
said Miriam R. Nemeth, Executive Director of the ACLU of Tennessee.

The Memphis Police Department declined to comment on what footage existed and when it would be released.

The National Guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the two members involved in the shooting had been placed on leave.

State Senators Raumesh Akbari and London Lamar, both Democrats representing Memphis, released a joint statement on the shooting Monday, saying Johnson’s family deserved clear answers as to what happened.

“Tyrin Johnson was just 20 years old — a young father and a student with his whole life ahead of him,” the statement said. “As his family mourns this heartbreaking loss, they deserve clear answers about the circumstances surrounding his death.”

The senators called on the TBI to conduct a thorough, independent investigation and to release any available body camera footage and surveillance video as soon as doing so is consistent with preserving the integrity of the investigation.

The Third Fatal Shooting on Trump’s Memphis Task Force

Tyrin Johnson’s death did not happen in isolation. It is part of a growing and deeply concerning pattern.

This is at least the third known fatality connected to this operation in recent months, following the deaths of Darrin Pigram in May and Jonah Neal, also in May,
according to the ACLU of Tennessee.

• DEA agents shot Darrin Pigram, 41, when serving a warrant on him in May. Pigram later died at the hospital. The agency said Pigram had pulled a gun on the agents.
• A week later, Jonah Neal was fatally shot by a Homeland Security special agent inside his home, where multiple weapons were found.
• On July 5, 2026, National Guard soldiers killed Tyrin Johnson during a foot pursuit in downtown Memphis.

Task force federal agents were involved in two other fatal shootings in May, according to TBI reports. Both are ongoing TBI investigations.

ACLU of Tennessee Executive Director Miriam R. Nemeth called for “a full, transparent, and independent accounting of exactly what happened when Tennessee National Guard troops opened fire on a civilian.”

State Rep. G.A. Hardaway was not alone among legislators drawing a harder line.
“The reason I’ve been against the occupation in Memphis since Day 1 was because we knew this would happen,” one state lawmaker said. “It is not OK, it should not be normalized, that the United States military is killing American citizens on American soil.”

What Is the Memphis Safe Task Force?

The Memphis Safe Task Force is a multi-agency initiative established via a Presidential Memorandum signed by President Donald Trump on Sept. 15, 2025. Aimed at addressing violent street crime, the task force coordinates federal, state, and local law enforcement and includes mobilized members of the Tennessee National Guard.

The multiagency Memphis Safe Task Force coordinates personnel from more than a dozen federal agencies, the Tennessee Highway Patrol, and the Tennessee National Guard.

About 1,472 National Guardsmen remain in Memphis.

All of those troops are deployed under so-called Title 32 orders, meaning their movement is controlled by their governor but paid for by the federal government.

Though it is unusual for military personnel to be involved in domestic law enforcement support, the troops have limited legal authority and largely perform security, logistics, and other support roles rather than direct policing.

The Crime Numbers Are Real — But So Are the Concerns

Supporters of the task force point to significant drops in violent crime. The White House and U.S. Marshals Service have publicized those numbers widely.

In January, the Memphis Police Department reported a significant drop in crime during 2025, including fewer than 200 homicides that year, which is a number not seen since 2019.

An analysis by the Council on Criminal Justice of several large cities showed continued decline in most types of crimes in Memphis through 2025, the same as in other cities in the analysis.

But independent analysts note the full picture is more nuanced.
The Council on Criminal Justice noted that violent crime was declining in most large American cities in 2025, and that the question of how much of Memphis’s improvement is attributable specifically to the federal task force versus the broader national trend and the city’s pre-existing strategies is one that cannot be answered with certainty from the available data.

Critics have also documented serious civil liberties concerns.
In May, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the task force, accusing it of monitoring residents in their homes, pulling people over under false pretenses, and arresting people for recording police activities.

Every time federal and state agents flood neighborhoods with force, the risk of tragedy grows, and Black and brown Memphians are disproportionately paying the price with their lives,
the ACLU warned.

Memphis is a majority-Black city.
The city is 63% Black.
That context cannot be separated from a conversation about who bears the greatest risk when armed soldiers patrol civilian streets.

The Accountability Gap: No Cameras, No Answers

At the center of this story is a gap in oversight that civil liberties advocates say was entirely predictable. National Guard troops operating in domestic law enforcement roles are not consistently equipped with body cameras. That means when deadly force is used, the public often has no independent record of what happened.

State Sen. London Lamar, who represents parts of Memphis, called for a rapid investigation into the shooting and urged transparency from the TBI. She said that community members were anxious for clarity on the National Guard’s rules of engagement.

“From what I’ve seen and I’ve heard, there are more questions than answers right now,” Lamar said. “I think that a lot of people want to know what actually happened to cause the National Guard to use their deadly force.”

Those are not unreasonable questions. When police shoot someone, the public expects accountability mechanisms: body cameras, use-of-force reviews, civilian oversight. When soldiers do it, those mechanisms are far less clear — and in Memphis, they appear to be nearly absent.

What Needs to Happen Now

The Johnson family, civil rights advocates, and state lawmakers are asking for the same basic things. Here is what accountability looks like in this moment:

• Release all available footage — surveillance video, dashcam footage, or any cellphone video collected by investigators — as soon as the integrity of the investigation allows.
• Require body cameras for all National Guard soldiers performing domestic law enforcement support roles.
• Conduct a full, independent investigation into the rules of engagement for the Memphis Safe Task Force and all three fatal shootings connected to it.
• Ensure the TBI’s findings are made public and that the Shelby County DA’s determination on use of force is fully transparent.

A Family Waits for Answers

Tyrin Johnson was 20 years old. He had a child. He had a family business to help build. He had music he was making. He went to Memphis for the Fourth of July, the same as thousands of others who lined the streets to watch fireworks that night.

“I believed in him, and I know he still had so much life ahead of him,” his grandfather told the AP. “The heartbreaking reality is that he will never have the chance to enjoy what we were building together.”

His grandfather is not asking for much. He wants to see what happened to his grandson. That is not a radical demand. It is the bare minimum of what a grieving family deserves — and what a democracy requires of those who use deadly force in its name.

The TBI investigation is ongoing. The DA will ultimately decide if the soldiers’ actions were justified. But the question of whether the Memphis Safe Task Force operates with adequate transparency and oversight is one that cannot wait for that process to conclude. Tyrin Johnson’s death demands answers now — not just for his family, but for every Memphis resident who lives under the watch of soldiers who may not be wearing cameras.

If you want to demand accountability and transparency for Tyrin Johnson’s family, contact Tennessee State Senators Raumesh Akbari and London Lamar, and urge the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to release all available footage and make its findings public. You can also support the ACLU of Tennessee’s ongoing legal work at aclu-tn.org.