Two Tennessee National Guard members assigned to a crime-fighting patrol in Memphis fatally shot a man Sunday who turned toward the soldiers with a gun during a downtown pursuit, authorities said.
The Guard members are part of a federal task force in Memphis created by President Trump, who last year sent troops and federal agents to Democrat-run cities that he described as overrun with crime. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, had deployed the Guard to support the effort.
Authorities said the soldiers in Memphis were responding with local police to reports of gunshots around 4 a.m. when they began pursuing an armed man fleeing on foot. The guardsmen opened fire after the man turned toward them with his weapon, according to the city’s police department.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation identified the man as Tyrin Johnson, 20.
Johnson died at the scene after two National Guard medical specialists attempted first aid, Guard spokesperson Lt. Col Darrin Haas said in a statement.
The TBI said it’s reviewing the shooting and that two guard members fired their weapons. Johnson’s family says they were told by the TBI that he was shot twice in the chest. The Memphis Police Department declined to comment on what footage existed and when it would be released.
The National Guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the two members involved in the shooting had been placed on leave.
Evaniel Johnson said his grandson had taken classes at Tennessee State University, was the father of a young child and was preparing to help lead the family business. He said his grandson was also passionate about making music.
“I believed in him, and I know he still had so much life ahead of him,” Evaniel Johnson said. “The heartbreaking reality is that he will never have the chance to enjoy what we were building together. That is a pain no grandparent should ever have to endure.”
He said he wanted to review findings from investigators and any video of the shooting before making judgment.
“Show me the video,” he told The Associated Press. “Please show me that — and then I’m OK. Until you show me that, I’m gonna fight and advocate for my grandson until there’s no breath in me.”
Evaniel Johnson, a former correctional officer with the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office in Nashville, disputes that his grandson would have tried to fire a gun at U.S. guard members and that deadly force would be needed if he was running away. His grandson, he said, was “no hoodlum.”
According to his grandfather, Johnson carried a gun for protection after being “jumped” recently in Nashville and was likely wary about being attacked again over a murky social media feud.
Evaniel Johnson via AP Photo 
A relative of Johnson told CBS affiliate WREG-TV she is devastated by his death. She said Johnson had moved to Nashville to get away from crime in Memphis, adding that loved ones urged him not to come to Memphis for the Fourth of July, but he did anyway.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young called the shooting an “unfortunate incident” and said he was waiting to see the results of the TBI investigation before commenting further, according to a statement provided by spokesperson Penelope Huston.
Tyrin Johnson did not appear to have a criminal history besides a handful of traffic violations, according to a review of online federal and state court records and Memphis and Nashville courts. In May, he was arrested for failing to appear at a 2025 hearing for driving without a license in Wilson County, just outside Nashville. He bonded out, records show.
He was enrolled in Tennessee State University from August 2023 to May 2024, according to university spokesperson Angel Higgins.
Federal troops have been patrolling Memphis since October over the objections of Young, a Democrat. The troops are part of the Memphis Safe Task Force, convened by Mr. Trump and comprised of federal and local agencies.
Mr. Trump’s decision to send Tennessee National Guard troops to Memphis to combat crime was met with a mixed response from residents and was the subject of a lawsuit. However, it was never the subject of widespread protests.
TBI data shows that at least three people have died in four shootings by officers tied to the federal task force.
Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee embraced federal intervention, while Mayor Young took a pragmatic approach. Young said he never asked for National Guard troops but recognized they were coming regardless of his opinion.
The task force has led to more than 10,000 arrests, the U.S. Marshals Service reported in June.
For years, Memphis, whose population exceeds 600,000, has dealt with high violent crime, including assaults, carjackings and homicides. Both Democratic and Republican officials have noted decreases last year in some crime categories, preceding the deployment and paralleling trends across U.S. cities.
In April, the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled that state and local Democratic officials lacked standing to block the deployment of federal troops in Memphis.
Evaniel Johnson said he had hoped his grandson would return to university and he was training him to take on a bigger role in the family’s real estate development business, including lining up a project for him in Nashville to oversee in the coming weeks.
On the Fourth of July, Evaniel Johnson said his family had gathered on his back porch in Nashville to play cards. He wished his grandson had stayed with them. Instead, Tyrin Johnson ended up in Memphis.
“He was down there like all the rest of the people trying to enjoy the Fourth of July,” the grandfather said. “His future was buying homes, living life, taking care of his little baby. He had a future. It’s gone now.”