Tag: Memphis Police Department

Categories
News News Blog

Retirement Granted for Memphis Officer Who Killed Darrius Stewart

Connor Schilling

Connor Schilling, the Memphis Police officer who shot and killed 19-year-old Darrius Stewart last summer during a traffic stop, has been granted a “line of duty retirement” by the city of Memphis pension board.

In November, a Shelby County Grand Jury declined to indict Schilling despite a recommendation by Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich to indict the officer for voluntary manslaughter and employment of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony. Shortly after the July 17th shooting, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) took up the case. They delivered their report to Weirich’s office last August, and the grand jury decision came down a few months later.

To take advantage of a line of duty retirement, a city employee must have two independent doctors verify the employee is disabled emotionally or physically. Schilling, who served on the force for nearly four years, will receive a pension of $1,138.19 twice each month. His retirement is effective April 1st.

“This retirement was granted by the pension board, because it is required under the city’s pension laws based on the recommendation of two doctors,” said the city’s chief legal officer Bruce McMullen. “Because Connor Schilling was under a doctor’s care, his administrative hearing with the Memphis Police Department was temporarily deferred. His retirement means the hearing cannot continue.”

Schilling was awaiting a Memphis Police Department (MPD) administrative hearing for violating handcuffing and radio procedures in the Stewart incident at the time of his retirement. At a press conference Thursday afternoon, MPD interim director Michael Rallings said the department was still reviewing the 800-page TBI file, in preparation for the hearing, when Schilling announced his retirement. Had the hearing occurred, Rallings said Schilling could have been facing punishment ranging from a written reprimand to termination. 

Stewart was shot on July 17th by Schilling after the car Stewart was a passenger in was pulled over for having a headlight out. Stewart was detained in the back of a squad car after the traffic stop while Schilling checked for warrants. When Schilling discovered Stewart had two outstanding warrants in Illinois and Iowa, he opened the squad car door to place handcuffs on Stewart. Schilling said Stewart then attacked him and struck him with the handcuffs. During the struggle, Schilling fired at Stewart. Stewart died from two gunshot wounds, according to the Shelby County Medical Examiner’s report.

Rallings said that he believed Stewart’s family was preparing for a civil lawsuit.

He said that, after the shooting, he personally went to Stewart’s mother’s home to offer her any help the MPD could give.

“We have been praying for that family since that incident happened,” Rallings said. “I have no idea what it’s like to be Darrius Stewart’s mother, but I know what it’s like to be hurt and experience death first-hand.”

Categories
News News Blog

Task Force Discusses Memphis Police and Fire Staffing

Alexandria Smith

A public safety task force will meet over the coming weeks to discuss ways to recruit and retain Memphis police officers and firefighters. The group met on Thursday afternoon at Memphis City Hall to outline challenges in staffing both departments.

Alexandria Smith, the city’s chief human resources officer, shared results of a survey of police and fire employees that found the departments are suffering from morale issues and are failing to recruit officers fast enough to fill the attrition gaps. Smith said police and fire staffing is her number-one priority.

Police and fire employees reported in the survey that they were happy with the city’s tuition reimbursement and college incentive pay, but they were unhappy with retirement and pension benefits. 

Members of the task force reported that at least nine cities have been recruiting officers and firefighters from Memphis, causing many of the best potential employees to leave after only a short time working for the city of Memphis. Much of the conversation centered around both attracting and retaining millennials, who some task force members said were more likely to get their training in Memphis and seek other jobs elsewhere.

The task force will look at benefits and health insurance options, career development opportunities, and streamlining the promotions process. A study is underway that compares compensation and benefits offered in Memphis with the other cities recruiting officers away from Memphis.

They’ll meet again at Memphis City Hall at 3 p.m. to discuss pension benefits and their effect on retention and recruitment. 

Categories
News News Blog

Police Body Camera Rollout Delayed

The rollout of body cameras for every Memphis Police officer has been pushed back indefinitely, a decision announced by Mayor Jim Strickland at a Friday afternoon press conference.

Back in September, Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong announced that 2,000 cameras would be deployed and operational by the end of 2015. He said 50 officers a day were being trained to use them.

But today, Strickland said his office felt it necessary to delay their deployment until the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office can update their technology to deal with the data that will be coming from the cameras. He also said city government would need additional manpower to handle public records requests for camera footage.

“I’d rather do the right thing than do the fast thing,” Strickland said.

Armstrong told those at the press conference today that the police department would also need more staff to screen and redact information from the videos.

“Someone has to sit down and view all of that video. It’s labor-intensive, and information has to be redacted so citizens’ private information doesn’t go public,” Armstrong said.

Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich said her office wasn’t given advance notice by Mayor A C Wharton’s administration about his 2015 deadline for getting the cameras operational.

“No one in my office had been trained [on what to do with the footage] before the announcement was made [last September],” Weirich said.

She said the police camera footage was “evidence, not entertainment” and that the contents would need to be handled carefully.

Strickland said he does support body cameras and said he voted for them when he was a Memphis City Councilmember. But he implied the previous administration rushed the deployment of cameras.

“I can’t speak to what happened before January 1st, but I think people were overly optimistic,” Strickland said.

Strickland would not speculate on when the city would be ready to roll out cameras.

Categories
News News Blog

Memphis Police Officer Arrested for Stalking

Joshua Barnes

Memphis Police officer Joshua Barnes has been arrested and charged with aggravated stalking and violating an order of protection or restraining order. Barnes was allegedly stalking his ex-girlfriend.

Barnes, 28, was served an order of protection from DeSoto County, and it was determined that Barnes violated that order on January 13th. Barnes met with investigators and was taken into custody. He’d allegedly applied a tracking device on his ex-girlfriend’s car, and when she went to file a complaint with Internal Affairs, Barnes was waiting there for her. After being asked to leave the area, Barnes parked his car across the street.

He’s been employed with the Memphis Police Department since 2009. He was assigned to the Ridgeway precinct, but he has been relieved of duty.

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

Changing the Guard at MPD

CREDIT: Memphis Police Department

It was recently announced that Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong and nearly half of his command staff are leaving the department. While there’s no question the departure of so many seasoned officers will be a huge loss, it also gives newly inaugurated Mayor Jim Strickland an opportunity to remake the department to better serve the community.

Memphis Police Department

Departing MPD Director Toney Armstrong

The department faces many external challenges and suffers from internal problems that have been long ignored. These challenges are unlikely to be adequately addressed by an insider.

One of the flaws that was exposed in the investigation into the officer involved in the shooting death of Darrius Stewart is the lack of consistent policy positions for officers in what would often be standard situations. 

Currently, rules are written vaguely, giving officers the latitude to make judgment calls. Unfortunately, that latitude can also be used to treat different people in similar situations very differently. This ultimately undermines the relationship between law enforcement and populations that have been wrongly targeted due to circumstances that are beyond their control (race, the condition of their vehicles/residences, and the areas in which they live).

Rules that detail when passengers involved in traffic stops are to identify themselves need to be put in writing. This will ensure people’s privacy rights are respected, and officers don’t accidentally create a situation where an arrest is thrown out due to mishandling.

Clear rules about when to call for backup need to be in place.

Finally, rules about when force, either restraining force or deadly force, is to be used need to be in line with a 1985 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which involved an unarmed, fleeing suspect and the Memphis Police Department. 

That ruling states deadly force cannot be used unless the officer has “probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others.”

The new police administration should actively engage the Citizen Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB) on any new policy adopted and treat their relationship as a partnership to both inform the public of new policy and provide oversight when policy violations are reported.

For too long, relations between law enforcement and the public have been strained due to real and/or perceived wrongs committed by officers. Partnering with the CLERB will give the public the assurance that conduct issues will be dealt with in a timely manner.

Changing the way the department polices the city is another issue to address.  Instituting a community policing program would help heal fractures and most likely lead to a real decrease in crime.

Officers in Memphis have little direct contact with the populations they’re serving unless they’re on a call. That means officers only see the people they’re serving when they’re at their worst or in a bad situation. This negatively impacts their outlook on the community and leads to more alienation.

While walking patrols may not be feasible in every neighborhood, focusing on developing relationships in the community will minimize the alienation that is common in traditional patrols. It also builds relationships between the public and police that are durable, even when things go wrong.

Those relationships also provide a “boots on the ground” intelligence to identify other societal ills that may be occurring in communities (domestic violence, child abuse or neglect, unfit housing, wage theft, and other problems people who feel forgotten may not report, because they don’t believe anything will be done about it).

These things are important for a city like Memphis that has a high rate of working poor. While the loss of decades of institutional memory may seem like a severe problem for the city, problems are really just opportunities ripe for the taking.

Positive changes are unlikely to come from within. Institutions have their own inertia and generally follow Newtonian laws of motion, meaning they will most certainly maintain their current velocity and direction unless acted upon by an external force, and even then, they’ll still resist any push to change.

The opportunity for Memphis and law enforcement in the new administration is to identify the right kind of “external force” that will move the department in the right direction and make Memphis not only safer for its citizens but also a city that places a high degree of value in a cooperative relationship between the police and the community.

Categories
News News Blog

Autopsy Reveals MPD Officer Sean Bolton Was Shot 8 Times

Sean Bolton

Memphis Police Officer Sean Bolton was shot 8 times on August 1st after conducting a traffic stop near Cottonwood and Perkins in Parkway Village, according to an autopsy report released by the Shelby County Medical Examiner on Tuesday.

Tremaine Wilborn, 29, has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of Bolton, who was 33. Wilborn was a passenger in a car that was stopped on the side of the road when Bolton pulled over to check on the car. Police believe Bolton may have interrupted a drug transaction. A struggle ensued between Bolton and Wilborn, and Bolton was shot multiple times. Police searched the vehicle Wilborn was riding in later and found almost 2 grams of pot.

The report says Bolton was shot on the left side of his face (with a re-entry on the left shoulder), on the right forearm, on the right hip, on the back of the right leg, on the right side of his torso, on the back of his left thigh, and on his right hand.

A screenshot of a diagram in the autopsy report showing where Bolton was shot.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Recent South Memphis Murder Is Similar To String of Unsolved 2011 Murders

Last week, a grim scene unfolded in South Memphis. On the morning of Wednesday, September 16th, the body of 25-year-old Juanita Gilmore was found in Hollywood Cemetery by someone visiting a grave. The discovery is eerily similar to a string of murders that took place in the same area in 2011.

According to court records, Gilmore, who was found with multiple stab wounds, had a history of prostitution arrests. Similarly, four women who were killed in the same area within a month’s time in early 2011 were also considered to be known prostitutes. Two of those women, 28-year-old Jessica Lewis and 44-year-old Rhonda Wells, were found dead at Mt. Carmel Cemetery a few days apart from one another, on February 20th and February 24th, 2011, just across a set of railroad tracks from Hollywood Cemetery.

Jessica Lewis

Two weeks before the discoveries of Lewis and Wells, the body of 31-year-old Tamakia McKinney was found in the middle of Hemlock Street, less than a mile from Mt. Carmel. It was also reported that another prostitute, Marnicia Shaw, was found dead inside a hotel room on Brooks Road on February 12th, 2011.

Following those murders, a fifth woman, a prostitute who went only by Katrina, was shot and left for dead on Ledger Street, again, less than a mile from the cemeteries where Lewis and Wells, and more recently Gilmore, were found. Katrina survived and was able to give police a description of the suspect. According to reports at the time, the murders were briefly investigated as having been potentially committed by a serial killer, though, according to the Memphis Police Department (MPD), there was a lack of connecting evidence.

Sketch of the man believed to have attacked at least one of the women

The cases soon disappeared from the public eye, and according to those close to the victims, seemingly from the eyes of MPD detectives, as well. No arrests were ever made, and the cases have gone unsolved for nearly five years.

For friends and family of the 2011 murder victims, the recent discovery of Gilmore has added fuel to the fire for justice.

Brandy Sullivan, a close friend of Lewis, wants people to know that Lewis’ life was just as important as anyone else’s, despite her criminal history. “People want to throw prostitutes aside just because they’re not deemed important to society,” Sullivan says. “But she was so much more than that. She was a daughter, a mother, a friend.”

Lewis excelled in college, had been employed at a prestigious local hospital, and was, for the most part, a model citizen before becoming addicted to drugs, the first step down a dark spiral that would ultimately lead to her death.

“Jessica was such a bubbly, happy, beautiful, smart woman. It’s not like she was wayward her whole life,” Sullivan says. “Drug addiction can happen to anybody; it doesn’t matter what your background is. She just got pulled into that, and she couldn’t pull herself out.”

Sullivan says the circumstances surrounding Gilmore’s death are too close to the others to go unnoticed.

“It seems like not enough attention was given to the similarities of all the murders in 2011,” she says. “And this new murder should spark a huge new investigation.”

The MPD did not respond to requests for comment on the Gilmore investigation or investigations into the 2011 murders by press time. Although it hasn’t been proven the murders were connected, Sullivan believes they may be.

“What I want is to see the person responsible; I want to be able to look at them and say, ‘You killed my friend. You hurt these women,'” Sullivan says. “It feels like the pain will never go away until someone is held responsible.”

Categories
News News Blog

Burglary at Bikram Yoga in Overton Square

Police are looking for this man in connection with a burglary at Bikram Yoga in Overton Square.

Bikram Yoga studio in Overton Square was robbed of $800 last week, and the Memphis Police Department (MPD) is reaching out to citizens to help solve the crime.

Around 11 a.m. on Monday, August 17th, the MPD responded to a burglary call at the hot yoga studio. Earlier, an unknown man had entered the studio while it was still closed and stole $800 worth of property. Video surveillance cameras in the studio captured images of a white man between the ages of 28 and 35, of medium build and with dark, short hair. He was wearing a blue polo shirt, khaki shorts, and flip-flops.

It is unknown how the man gained entry into the business. The MPD is asking those with information to contact the department.

Categories
News News Blog

Report Reveals Conflict in Officer Accounts of Steven Askew’s Death

Steven Askew

Memphis Police officers Matthew Dyess and Ned Aufdenkamp changed their stories about what happened the night the pair shot and killed 24-year-old Steven Askew on January 17th, 2013, according to documents obtained by the Askew family attorney.

According to a witness statement from Memphis Police officer Christy Drew, who filed the police report on the scene that night, Aufdenkamp informed her that “he noticed a weapon in [Askew’s] lap. Officer Aufdenkamp then advised that the man pointed the weapon at him and fired a shot. At that point, the officers returned fire.”

The officers later alleged that Askew simply pointed his gun at them and that no shots were fired. A later investigation found that Askew never fired a weapon that night, according to Howard Manis, his family’s attorney in a civil rights claim against the city.

On January 17th, 2013, Aufdenkamp and Dyess responded to a loud noise disturbance call at an apartment complex in Southeast Memphis. After they were unable to locate the source of the loud noise, they drove to another nearby complex — the Windsor Place Apartments. That’s where Askew was sleeping in his car in the parking lot, waiting for his girlfriend to return home.

The officers later testified that they saw Askew sleeping in the car, and they stopped to investigate whether or not his vehicle was the source of the noise, but there was no music coming from his car (and the noise complaint had come from a completely different complex). The officers approached Askew’s car and shined their flashlights in his windows. When he didn’t wake, they tapped on the window. That’s when the officers claim they saw a gun in Askew’s lap and proceeded to point their weapons at Askew. Both officers allege that Askew then pointed his gun at them, but their statements conflicted as to which hand Askew held his gun with. And the newly produced documents show that the officers told Drew that Askew fired his gun. 

The officers fired 22 shots, and Askew was hit nine times — six times in the back, two in his arms, and one in the back of his neck. 

That witness statement from Drew, which demonstrates a conflict in the officers’ account of what happened, was originally withheld from Askew’s attorney. Manis made an open records request to the city of Memphis and the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office after being hired by Askew’s family. Drew’s statement was not included in the materials produced by the city, but it was included in the files from the DA’s office. Manis said the city finally produced the statement on May 21st of this year, two years after the shooting and the Memphis Police Department’s (MPD) internal investigation that cleared Dyess and Aufdenkamp of wrongdoing.

Officers Ned Aufdenkamp and Matthew Dyess

“It’s obviously information that we feel like we should have been provided at the very beginning,” Manis said.

Drew was recently deposed by Askew’s attorney, and she testified that, indeed, one of the officers told her that Askew fired multiple rounds at them before they returned fire and killed him. Drew testified that she never requested that Askew’s weapon be checked to see if it had been fired or to be tested for fingerprints. She also testified that she had casual, off-the-record conversations with with Dyess and Aufdenkamp that night when the two admitted that they were no longer certain Askew had fired a weapon. Yet Drew failed to include that information in her report.

Dyess and Aufdenkamp were relieved of duty during an MPD internal investigation in January 2013, but they were reinstated the next month. Aufdenkamp’s personnel file revealed a long history of performance problems and citizen complaints on his behavior. Askew’s family filed a lawsuit alleging a civil rights violation against their son, and that case is ongoing.

“We are trying to wrap up discovery. We’ve had a great deal of witnesses deposed, and we’re moving forward,” Manis said.

The MPD did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

CLERB: a force for good

Nowhere is the dilemma of city government in Memphis — and of the officials and current candidates who will be attempting to guide it for the next years — more stark and challenging than in the area of law enforcement. Of the four candidates for mayor generally acknowledged to be the leaders of the pack, one, Memphis Police Association president Mike Williams (on sabbatical during the campaign) is a policeman himself; two others, Councilmen Jim Strickland and Harold Collins have made the matters of youth violence and public safety prominent aspects of their campaigns; and another, incumbent Mayor A C Wharton, finds himself more and more concerned with the issue on a day-to-day basis.

In the last year, no crisis on the national scene has been more omnipresent and unavoidable than that involving the troubled relationship of citizens and their police, particularly when the individuals on opposite sides of the thin blue line have been of different races. The fact of police violence against African Americans has been a nonstop phenomenon, a staple of the daily news, and, while the public reaction has been most intense when the confrontations, often fatal, have been between white cop vs. black citizen, there have been incidents as well involving individuals of the same race.

Not quite matching this in volume, but every bit as terrifying in effect, have been a spate of violent attacks against police. No one in Memphis needs to be reminded of what happened in the last few days to Officer Sean Bolton, who was shot multiple times and left to die while performing a routine traffic stop. If there is a silver lining to this horror, it is in the massive minute-by-minute commitment of city officialdom and law enforcement that brought the suspect, apparently a career criminal, to turn himself in to custody within 24 hours, when it became obvious that he was out of running room. None of the usual racial or political lines were in evidence during this act of collective hot pursuit, and Memphis Police director Toney Armstrong and the personnel of the MPD are to be congratulated for their efforts.

As the fates would have it, this event immediately preceded this week’s latest consideration by the Memphis City Council of a revamped Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board. Both the council and Mayor Wharton have undergone a back-and-forth on how strong this oversight board needs to be, and what its intrinsic powers are.

Whatever the final result of this week’s deliberations, we would urge that the public view the reconfigured board neither as an antagonistic watchdog force nor as a mere advisory body, but as a true partner to law enforcement — a body that can provide positive as well as negative feedback and that spurs our police force further toward the kind of effective protective action that it exists to provide in the first place.