MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - The Shelby County district attorney’s office released Thursday the investigative file in the fatal shooting of a man by two Memphis police officers in January.
The files posted on the district attorney’s website provides witness and officer statements, photos, maps, and results of forensic analysis, resulting from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s probe into the death of 32-year-old Jonathon Bratcher.
Authorities said Bratcher was killed as he and another man were being pursued on foot after Bratcher drove away from a traffic stop and crashed his car while driving recklessly through a neighborhood on Jan. 27.
The TBI said Bratcher fired at Officers Clement Marks and Alexander Fleites, who shot back. Bratcher died at the scene.
Marks is black and Fleites is white. Bratcher was black. A third law enforcement officer, a Shelby County sheriff’s deputy, also gave chase but did not fire his weapon.
District Attorney Amy Weirich said last month that the officers will not be charged. She said she believes a jury would find that the officers had “lawful justification” to shoot at Bratcher in self-defense.
Witnesses cited in the report said they heard 10 to 20 shots, but they did not see the shooting take place. Bratcher’s passenger in the car told investigators he saw Bratcher holding a gun with a blue bandanna wrapped around the clip.
One witness said he or she saw Bratcher with something blue in his hand, but another said he or she saw nothing in his hands.
One of the officers said Bratcher dropped the gun during the pursuit, picked it up and then opened fire on police near a church. The officer said he fired 16 shots at Bratcher and recovered the gun at the scene.
Video from one of the officers’ body cameras includes audio of gunshots but does not show the actual shooting. The blurry video shows officers gathered around the body and other law enforcement responding to the scene.
A medical examiner said Bratcher was shot once in the back of the head and was grazed in the left shoulder by a bullet.
Police shootings involving Memphis police are investigated by the TBI, under an agreement with the district attorney’s office and the bureau. TBI investigative files are confidential, but Weirich went to court to obtain a judge’s order to release them.
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