Tyrin Johnson was shot in the back. Memphis deserves the truth.

Tyrin Johnson was shot in the back.

That is not speculation. It is the finding of an autopsy performed by the West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center. The report shows that a bullet entered the right side of Johnson’s back and exited through his upper chest. A forensic pathologist who reviewed the findings said the bullet’s upward trajectory was consistent with Johnson running away from the person who shot him.

That evidence directly contradicts the account authorities gave the public after Johnson was killed by members of the Tennessee National Guard in downtown Memphis on July 5.

Memphis police initially said Johnson turned toward the soldiers with a handgun during a foot pursuit. A National Guard report similarly claimed he “rounded on” the soldiers and pointed a gun at them. The autopsy establishes that Johnson was not shot in the chest as those initial descriptions suggested. He was shot from behind.

This discrepancy cannot be explained away with another press release.

Johnson was 20 years old. His family has spent nearly two months demanding the evidence that would show what happened during the final moments of his life. They have reportedly not been shown video of the shooting. Now, the physical evidence has raised even more serious questions about the government’s version of events.

The public deserves answers.

Every available recording must be preserved and released, including surveillance footage, vehicle-camera recordings, police radio communications and video from the body-worn cameras of Memphis police officers who responded to the scene. The identities of the soldiers who fired must be disclosed. The public should be told how many shots each soldier fired, where each soldier was standing and why two soldiers reportedly discharged their weapons when the autopsy documents a single gunshot wound.

Memphis police officers were involved in the response and should have been operating their body cameras. If footage exists, officials should not hide it behind a vague appeal to an “ongoing investigation.” If no footage exists, the public deserves to know why.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says its investigation remains open. But an investigation conducted behind closed doors cannot by itself repair the damage caused when the government’s initial account conflicts with medical evidence. This case requires a genuinely independent, transparent investigation, followed by a public accounting of the evidence.

The medical examiner classified Johnson’s death as a homicide. That classification does not by itself establish criminal culpability. 

But neither does a uniform place someone beyond the reach of the law. If the evidence establishes probable cause that Johnson did not pose an imminent threat when he was shot, the person or persons responsible must be charged. The same legal standards that apply to every other Tennessean must apply to members of the National Guard.

Anything less would amount to a separate system of justice for agents of the state.

Man fatally shot in second Memphis Safe Task Force use-of-force incident this week

I raised concerns about Johnson’s killing before the autopsy became public because his death cannot be separated from the larger militarization of public safety in Memphis. The Memphis Safe Task Force has placed National Guard troops alongside federal, state and local law enforcement personnel, giving military forces an expanding presence in ordinary civilian policing.

We were told the National Guard would provide support. Instead, Guard members pursued Johnson through downtown Memphis and opened fire. A military deployment promoted as a way to make Memphis safer ended with a young Black man shot in the back.

That reality should force us to reconsider not only this shooting but the entire political project that made it possible.

Supporters of the Memphis Safe Task Force repeatedly cite arrest totals, traffic stops, citations and firearm seizures as proof of success. The White House has claimed that the operation “crushed” violent crime. Yet Memphis crime was already declining before Guard patrols began, and a recent analysis found no measurable evidence that National Guard deployments reduced violent crime, homicide or gun victimization in the cities examined.

Smart City Memphis recently highlighted an estimated $319 million cost for the Memphis deployment through the end of 2026. At that price, Tennesseans should demand more than political theater, inflated claims and carefully selected enforcement totals. They should demand evidence that the deployment has made communities safer — and an honest accounting of the harm committed in its name.

Public safety cannot be measured only by how many people the government stops, cites or arrests. It must also be measured by whether government agents respect constitutional rights, whether families receive the truth when their loved ones are killed and whether those who misuse state power are held accountable.

A government that demands obedience while refusing transparency is not producing safety. It is producing fear.

That is why elected officials at every level must do more than offer condolences. They must demand the release of the footage, insist upon an independent investigation, hold public hearings and refuse to expand or fund this deployment without meaningful civilian oversight. Silence in this moment is not neutrality. It protects the institutions withholding answers.

There is also an election approaching.

This November, Tennesseans must pay close attention to the officials and candidates who champion the militarization of our communities while resisting transparency and oversight. Anyone asking for the power to govern should be required to explain whether they will protect the public from abuses of state authority — or simply protect the authorities.

Those who want more militarized law enforcement with less public accountability should not be elected or returned to office.

This is not a partisan abstraction. It is a question of life and death. Johnson’s family is living with the consequences, and every Black family in Memphis understands what is at stake when the government can kill one of us and then control the evidence, the investigation and the story told afterward.

Black lives are literally hanging in the balance.

Justice for Tyrin begins with the truth. It requires the release of every pertinent recording, a full and independent investigation, and criminal charges if the evidence establishes that his killing was unlawful.

Tyrin Johnson was shot in the back. No elected official should be permitted to look away.