Autopsy Shows Memphis Man Shot in Back by National Guard

An autopsy report reveals that Tyrin Johnson, the 20-year-old man fatally shot by Tennessee National Guard troops in Memphis on July 5, was struck by a bullet that entered his back, contradicting initial official accounts that said he was facing the soldiers when they fired. The findings, obtained by the Associated Press, add to growing scrutiny of the federally created Memphis Safe Task Force and its record of deadly encounters.

The Autopsy Findings

According to the autopsy report prepared by the West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center Office of the Medical Examiner, a single bullet entered the right side of Johnson’s back and exited through his upper right chest. The bullet had a slightly upward trajectory through his body, which Dr. Steven White, a certified forensic pathologist who reviewed the report for the AP, said would be “consistent with him running away from the shooter.”

The report also found no soot, gunpowder stippling, or muzzle imprint around the wound, indicating Johnson was likely shot from more than three feet away. The manner of death was listed as “homicide,” the official term used when a death is caused by another person, though the designation does not necessarily imply intent or carry legal weight. No criminal charges have been filed to date.

Johnson was carrying a “handgun magazine with rounds” according to the autopsy’s personal effects list, though no handgun was found. A toxicology screen came back with “no positive findings” of drugs or alcohol in his system.

Contradicting Official Accounts

Authorities had previously stated that Johnson turned toward the Guard members with a gun while running from them in the early morning hours after the Fourth of July holiday in downtown Memphis, and that he was fatally shot in the chest. The BBC reported that the National Guard report claimed Johnson “rounded on them and pointed a tan handgun at them,” prompting both troops to fire their M17 service weapons.

However, the autopsy’s own “investigative narrative,” based on an account from a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) agent, still claims Johnson was “turning toward law enforcement with a gun” and that officers “struck him once in the chest” — a description that directly conflicts with the physical evidence of a wound to the back.

Andre Wharton, an attorney representing Johnson’s family, told the AP that the narrative presented by law enforcement does not match the autopsy findings. “I just see some kind of blatant inconsistency there, in terms of what law enforcement reports,” Wharton said. “The versions don’t seem to match.”

The Guardian reported that TBI spokesperson Kim Wheeler-Elder said neither her agency nor the Shelby County District Attorney’s office had “seen a report from the National Guard” and asked the AP where it had obtained the publicly available document.

Family Demands Transparency

Johnson’s family has repeatedly asked authorities to show them surveillance video or other evidence that he was pointing a weapon at the Guard members. To date, they have not been shown any video of the moments leading up to the shooting. The U.S. Marshals Service and Tennessee National Guard say the Guard does not own or wear body cameras.

“Be transparent — you shot him in the back,” said Evaniel Johnson, Tyrin’s grandfather and a former correctional officer with the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office in Nashville. “I just want to make sure somebody be responsible for what happened. Some accountability. They ain’t never going to bring my grandson back.”

Tennessee State Representative Justin Pearson released a statement on X saying “Johnson should be alive today” and calling the killing “a horrifying example of the brutality and injustice the Memphis Unsafe Task Force has brought to our city.”

The Memphis Safe Task Force

The Guard members were assigned to the Memphis Safe Task Force, created by President Donald Trump in September 2025 to combat crime in Memphis. The task force comprises roughly 350 federal agents from the FBI, Homeland Security, DEA, and U.S. Marshals, along with approximately 1,450 members of the Tennessee National Guard, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

The July 5 shooting was the fourth shooting, and third fatal shooting, involving a member of the task force in Memphis. According to NPR, at least five people have been shot by task force members since its inception, four of them fatally. These include the May 20 killing of 25-year-old Jonah Neal, who was shot by a Homeland Security Investigations agent during a mental health crisis call, and a May 13 shooting by DEA agents attempting to serve an arrest warrant.

Both National Guard members involved in Johnson’s shooting were too young to be Memphis police officers — one was 19 and the other was 20 at the time of the shooting. The Memphis Police Department requires officers to be 21 at graduation, as USA Today reported. National Guard members are military police mostly trained to enforce military law and defend military bases — vastly different training than Memphis police receive.

Broader Concerns About Militarized Policing

The autopsy findings have amplified concerns about the task force’s operations and the broader trend of federal military deployments in American cities. The Trump administration has deployed National Guard troops and federal agents to multiple Democrat-led cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Portland.

Miriam R. Nemeth, executive director of the ACLU of Tennessee, told NPR she feared this outcome from the start. “I turned to my colleagues and I said, ‘Memphis is next. I’m terrified that Memphis is next,’” she said. “I fear that it’s not and the way to get to the end of this is to have more accountability and to have a real reckoning about what the task force is doing in Memphis.”

Thaddeus Johnson, a former high-ranking Memphis police officer and senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice, described the fundamental problem with the deployment. “You’re not trained for it. You don’t have a connection to the community, and you’re coming in like a foreign invader,” he said. “It’s a very shortsighted way to view public safety.”

Rev. Earle J. Fisher, a Memphis pastor who wrote about Johnson’s killing for Truthout, connected the shooting to a broader pattern of militarized policing in Black communities. “We cannot police our way into public safety,” he wrote. “We certainly cannot militarize our way there.”

What’s Next

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says its investigation remains “open and ongoing,” and the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office has not yet made a charging decision. Johnson’s family continues to demand the release of video evidence and a transparent accounting of what happened.

The case has drawn parallels to the 2023 police killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, where initial official narratives collapsed under the weight of video evidence. Whether the Johnson case produces similar accountability — or becomes another chapter in the troubled history of the Memphis Safe Task Force — remains to be seen.

As Evaniel Johnson put it: “If he ain’t caused you no threat, you know what I’m saying, you have no reason to be killing.”