A Memphis police officer and a teenage boy were killed in a shootout early Friday morning after police responded to a call about a suspicious vehicle.
Police said officers responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle at 2 a.m. Friday at Horn Lake Road and Charter Avenue. As they approached the vehicle, the occupants of the vehicle fired shots, and officers returned fire, police said.
A hail of bullets hit two teenage suspects and three police officers, killing one suspect and one police officer, Joseph McKinney.
During the confusion, the suspicious vehicle fled, and police pursued it. The vehicle was stopped in the 400 block of Hewlett Road and one suspect was taken into custody. The other suspect fled the scene, was found nearby and taken into custody, police said.
Two officers were taken to Regional One Health Hospital in Memphis, and “tragically one of our officers lost his life,” Police Chief Celelyn “CJ” Davis said at a morning news conference. .
Davis said McKinney joined the department in 2020.
The lieutenant's condition was upgraded to non-serious and he said he was “doing well.”
The third officer was treated at the scene and is in stable condition, Davis said. Police initially said two people were shot and a third person was grazed by gunfire.
Both suspects were also transported in critical condition to Region 1, where the driver of the suspect vehicle, an 18-year-old suspect, died from his injuries, Davis said. His name has not been disclosed.
The other suspect, believed to be 17 years old, remains in the hospital.
Davis said the 18-year-old suspect who died had previously been arrested by Memphis police in March, and that an “illegally modified semi-automatic rifle with a Glock switch” was found inside the stolen vehicle. He said that he had converted it into a fully automatic machine. gun.
At the time, the boy was also charged with possessing two stolen cars and a programming device commonly used in car thefts. He was released without bail at the time, she said.
Davis said the local district attorney's office has been notified. Tennessee Bureau of Investigation They will be at the scene to investigate the shooting.
“We're not just worried about police officers, we're worried about the public. This could have been anyone, and we're concerned about the audacity and use of weapons,” he said. And I'm really, really upset about the situations that we're seeing in our community,” Davis said.
“We have a family grieving right now, we have a wife grieving right now, we have a suspect's family grieving right now. As a community, we have to do better. A.M. We have to make sure parents know where their young people are at 3pm,” she added.
Mayor Paul Young said: “We need a call to action from the community,” calling the incident a “senseless act of violence.”
“We know we need to do more as a community to hold violent offenders accountable for their actions, including young people. We must strive to hold violent offenders accountable. We want to protect our communities, and young people are counting on us to get this right,” Young added.
Sergeant Matt Cunningham, president of the Memphis Police Association, told NBC News on Friday: “This is the most tragic situation any police department could ever experience.”
“We have a problem. We have a revolving door in prison,” Cunningham explained.
“The suspect in this shooting was released from prison on his own recognizance, but he immediately went out onto the street, armed himself, and engaged in a shootout with police, which also resulted in the death of the police officer. This is another tragedy.” ,” he said. “If he had been in prison, he himself would have been alive. That's the situation here in Shelby County, and we have to do something about the revolving door of prisons. No need.”
The union has started a fundraiser on Facebook for the officer's family.