Connor Schilling
The Memphis Police Department (MPD) has identified Connor Schilling as the officer who shot 19-year-old Darrius Stewart during a traffic stop last Friday night.
Schilling, 26, was hired by the MPD in June 2012. He has been relieved of duty pending an investigation of the shooting.
Stewart was shot by Schilling after the car he was a passenger in was pulled over for a headlight being out. Stewart was placed in the back of a squad car after the traffic stop while Schilling checked for warrants. The police account of what happened says that, when Schilling opened the squad car to handcuff Stewart, the man kicked the door and tried to attack the officer. Shortly after the warrant check, police reported that Stewart had been shot and an ambulance was called for. Stewart later died at The Med. Stewart’s family has reported that the warrants were a case of mistaken identity. Some have questioned why a passenger would have gone through a warrant check anyway.
Schilling, who worked in the MPD’s Ridgeway precinct, had a previous suspension for a DUI arrest in Southaven in July 2014 , but criminal charges were dismissed in that case. He did, however, receive departmental charges after the incident. His personnel file also contains one excessive force case in 2013 that was found to be not sustained by the MPD.
