On Thursday afternoon, a Memphis police officer fatally shot a guy inside a public library after the man shot and badly injured another officer, according to the authorities.
The individual who was shot was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Memphis Police Department, which has been under severe criticism following the assault that resulted in Tyre Nichols’ death last month. According to the department, the officer was rushed to a hospital in a “very severe” condition.
The Memphis police reacted to a report of a man trespassing at a business close to the Poplar-White Station Library around midday, according to Keli McAlister, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which was brought in to investigate the shooting. About 30 minutes later, inside the library, the same man got into a fight with another person, according to Ms. McAlister. When the police attempted to speak with him, he drew a revolver and shot one officer.
The man was then shot and killed by a second police officer, she claimed. According to Ms. McAlister, both cops and the victim the police killed were Black men.
Brad Winchester, 59, a regular at the Poplar-White Station Library, said it was quiet at the branch when he arrived a little after noon, with only about five patrons and the library’s staff inside.
When he walked in, Mr. Winchester said he noticed two police officers near the library’s computer bank questioning a man he had never seen before.
“I’d made it to the area where I read my books,” Mr. Winchester said. “I’d gotten two pages into the book, and the shooting started.”
A female customer was taken behind a bookcase to protect her from the shooting after he claimed to have heard several bullets. A police officer was lying on the ground bleeding when he looked up, and another officer attempted to assist him.
“The officer was laying face up,” he said. “The other police were trying to administer aid. You could visibly see blood.”
“That was very scary,” he added as he crossed the library’s parking lot after being questioned by the police.
Read also:
- Memphis Police Release Video of Tyre Nichols’ Arrest
- A Man Was Arrested and Accused in Connection With the Death of a University of Memphis Student
Steven J. Mulroy, the district attorney in the area, requested an investigation into the incident from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Five Memphis police officers have been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Mr. Nichols, and Mr. Mulroy’s office oversees their prosecution. This is because video footage showed the cops beating and kicking Mr. Nichols and striking him with a baton.
The East Memphis neighborhood’s upmarket area, which includes a Whole Foods supermarket and eateries, is home to the library where the shooting on Thursday took place. The Clark Tower, a 34-story office skyscraper, is located just behind the library.
Rubbie King, a paralegal, said she went to the library on Thursday to get some work done after a recent ice storm knocked out the internet at her home. She had just gotten into a study room near the front of the library; she said, when she heard five gunshots.
Instead of turning off the lights to avoid drawing attention, she backed into a corner of the room. When she looked outside, she noticed a policeman pinned a man to the ground.
“The police officer was standing with his foot on the guy’s back and said, ‘I told you, stop moving. If you move again, I’m a pop you again,'” Ms. King, 54, recalled after she returned home, still shaken by the experience.
She claimed that the man was lying outside the library’s metal detectors. She took a moment to look around before cautiously exiting the library.
Ms. King said it had been a hard few weeks in the city, with Mr. Nichols’s death, the release of videos showing the beating, and a tragedy in a public library. On a weekend trip to Texas, she had been reluctant to tell people that she was from Memphis.
She remarked, “It’s terrible that Memphis has received such a lot of negative publicity.” It’s pretty depressing. Although much work is still to be done, we will eventually recover.
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