National Guard soldiers fatally shoot a man in Memphis
Two National Guard soldiers shot and killed a 20-year-old man in downtown Memphis around 4 a.m. on July 5, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The TBI identified the man as Tyrin Johnson and said he was armed with a handgun when police and soldiers pursued him on foot after responding to reports of shots fired. The agency said “the situation escalated, resulting in two National Guard soldiers firing upon Johnson, striking and killing him”; Memphis police said Johnson had turned toward the soldiers with his weapon. No law enforcement personnel were injured.
The Guard has been in Memphis since October 2025 as part of a federal task force ordered by President Trump to combat crime in cities with high violent-crime rates. The deployment has been contentious in part because it places soldiers in routine street-level encounters normally handled by police, and a fatal shooting by Guard members is the kind of outcome critics warned the mission could produce. Memphis had reported declining crime even before the troops arrived.
The TBI is investigating independently at the request of the Shelby County district attorney, a standard step that keeps the review outside the hands of the agencies involved. Its findings will shape whether the shooting is deemed justified and will feed the broader debate over using military personnel for domestic policing.