Video of 2021 MPD shooting highlights DOJ concerns
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. – FOX13 Investigates continues to dig into the findings from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation into the Memphis Police Department.
The 17-month investigation concluded that Memphis Police officers violate the civil rights of Memphians on a regular basis.
The four main findings: use of excessive force, unlawful traffic stops and arrests, discrimination against Black people, and discrimination against people with behavioral health disabilities.
One of the other findings from the DOJ is Memphis Police officers unreasonably shoot at people and cars after putting themselves in dangerous situations. FOX13 Investigates found video of one of the incidents the DOJ used as an example for this.
In December 2021, a woman was fatally shot while in a McDonald’s drive-thru in South Memphis. Police revealed the car was stolen out of Mississippi.
Video from a body-worn camera worn by a reporting officer shows the 12 seconds from the time he arrived at the scene to the moments after the shooting.
Nine months after the shooting, then-Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich announced it was justified. In her announcement, Weirich said the driver who was killed, Kayla Lucas, was driving a stolen car.
According to her summary of events, “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.”
But the DOJ felt differently. In its report, it said the call came in as a stolen vehicle and officers attempted to box the car in. It said one of the officers got out of his car and ran toward the suspect’s car, but tripped and fell to the ground.
The report goes on to say, “As he regained his footing and jumped out of the car’s path, another officer fired twice at the car. The officer fired another six shots after his partner had retreated to safety, including the final two as the suspect’s car slowly came to rest against a brick wall. When he continued to fire after the car no longer presented a threat, the officer used unreasonable force and unnecessarily placed bystanders and officers in harm’s way. MPD’s investigation improperly found that this use of deadly force was justified.”
Kayla Lucas’s family has since filed a lawsuit against the City of Memphis and Memphis Police Department. The federal lawsuit identifies the officer who fired the fatal shots.
FOX13 found his name was also tied to the shooting death of a young man in Whitehaven in 2019. FOX13 is not reporting his name because he was cleared of charges in both incidents.
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