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Officers Justified in 3 Fatal Shooting Incidents in 2021, DA Announces

Aug. 26, 2022 – No criminal charges will be filed against law enforcement officers involved in three separate fatal shooting incidents of fleeing felons that occurred last year, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

In two incidents officers were struck or were nearly struck by the suspects’ vehicles, while in the third an officer was shot in the chest but the bullet was stopped by his protective vest.

The decisions were based on facts, evidence, and statements compiled in comprehensive reports by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Violent Crime Response Team. The reports then were examined and discussed by the DA’s Officer Involved Death Review Team consisting of Gen. Weirich and five senior prosecuting attorneys.

Before decisions are released, the involved law enforcement agencies are notified, the DA meets with the families of the deceased, and redactions are made to the TBI reports which include thousands of pages and hundreds of photographs.

The TBI reports in each case are available at SCDAG.

The cases include:

o the shooting of Antonio Jackson, 26, on Aug. 16, 2021, at the Robinhood Apartments by a lieutenant with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office who was trying to arrest Jackson in a narcotics investigation as he sat in his parked car. Instead of surrendering, Jackson drove off, striking the officer with his car. The officer fired two shots before he was knocked to the ground. One shot hit Jackson in the chest, killing him. Inside the car officers found a stolen pistol, marijuana, cocaine and fentanyl. He had $1,900 in his pockets.

o the shooting of Kayla Lucas, 25, by a Memphis police officer on Dec. 15, 2021, outside a McDonald’s Restaurant at 3120 S. Third St. where she was in the drive-thru line in a stolen car. As the uniformed officer approached with his weapon drawn, Lucas put the vehicle in reverse and accelerated, striking the driver’s door of an MPD unit as a second officer was exiting. As that officer jumped back inside to avoid being crushed, a third officer slipped and fell while trying to avoid the suspect’s car as it moved toward him. The first officer fired shots at the driver through the car’s windshield, striking Lucas once in the side. She died at the scene.

o the shootings of Terrance Dogan, 27, and John Henry Taylor, 18, on Dec. 16, 2021, by an Arkansas State Trooper following a high-speed chase into Memphis that ended on West McLemore at I-55. Dogan, who was wanted on violent felony warrants out of South Carolina, fired multiple rounds as he drove past and in front of the trooper, hitting the officer in the center of the chest. His vest stopped the bullet and the trooper fired his duty rifle through his own windshield, striking the fleeing vehicle multiple times. The suspect’s vehicle came to a stop and, after a period of surveillance, Memphis police officers in an armored vehicle found Dogan and Taylor dead. Each had been shot once.

The TBI reports and photographs posted on the District Attorney’s website have been redacted in accordance with Tennessee law and privacy standards. If the officer or officers involved in the death are not charged with a crime, their name or names also will be redacted.

In 2015, DA Weirich, the Memphis Police Department, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, and the TBI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) outlining a new procedure in which officer-involved death investigations are conducted.

Under the MOU, the DA is notified immediately when an individual dies at the hands of law enforcement or dies while in the custody of law enforcement, if warranted by the circumstances. The DA, in turn, notifies the TBI and asks them to conduct an investigation.

When the TBI report is completed, it is sent to the DA who will make a decision whether criminal charges should be filed.

DA Weirich initially had to seek permission from Chancery Court to release the reports to the public since TBI investigative files at that time were confidential under state law.

In 2017, however, the state legislature approved a bill allowing TBI investigative records on officer-involved deaths to be made public after the investigation and prosecution are completed.

SCDAG