The officers involved in last year’s shooting death of Jonathan Bratcher will not face criminal charges.
Bratcher, 32, was killed Jan. 27, 2016, near Mississippi Boulevard and South Parkway East after firing at officers while fleeing from his vehicle to avoid arrest. His car was being pursued by police on traffic charges.
“Weighing the totality of circumstances of Jan. 27, 2016, no criminal charges will be filed and no indictments will be sought against any officers in the death of Jonathan Bratcher,” Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich said Wednesday. “I believe a jury would find that the officers had lawful justification to fire their weapons at the suspect in self-defense, in the defense of others and in order to affect an arrest.”
[pullquote-1] Weirich’s statement follows the district attorney’s review of an investigative file compiled by the Violent Crime Response Team of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). The TBI investigates all fatal shootings that involve Memphis police officers and the Shelby County Sheriff’s department per a memorandum of understanding signed last October by those parties and Gen. Weirich.
While by law TBI’s investigative reports are not open to the public without a subpoena or court order, Gen. Weirich filed a petition Tuesday in Chancery Court asking a judge to open the investigative report to the public. A hearing on that request has not been set.
