Marshals Justified in Suspect’s Death

July 10, 2020 – Federal marshals acted within the law in the shooting death last year of an armed Memphis man they were trying to arrest on felony assault warrants, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

The incident involved five members of the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Fugitive Task Force and Brandon Webber who was wanted for shooting a Hernando, Miss., man multiple times and stealing his car.

Webber, 20, had later posted online videos of himself driving the stolen car and showing a tactical rifle with a pistol grip with two high-capacity magazines in the front seat. On another video Webber shows a passing police car and says into the camera “F--- 12 (police). If they turn their dumb ass around it’s on. This s--- going to be fun.”

At around 6:30 p.m. on June 12, 2019, the marshals located Webber in the stolen car backed in the driveway at 2075 Durham Ave. and attempted to pin him in with their vehicles. Webber tried to escape by backing up and then going forward. He rammed one of the marshal’s vehicles, but had nowhere to go.

When two marshals attempted to remove him from the vehicle Webber grabbed his tactical rifle and pointed it at them. The two marshals immediately retreated, shouted “Gun, gun, gun” and fired at Webber. Three other marshals providing cover fired as well.

“Under the law in Tennessee, officers are not required to wait until they are fired upon,” Gen. Weirich said. “They may use deadly force when they have probable cause to believe that the individual to be arrested poses a threat of serious bodily injury, either to the officer or to others unless immediately apprehended.”

She said her decision is based solely on Tennessee criminal law and does not consider policies, procedures or training requirements of the U.S. Marshals Service or of any state or local law enforcement agencies. The decision also does not consider disciplinary policies of the agencies or civil liability.