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MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Memphis police officer and an 18-year-old suspect are dead after an exchange of gunfire that wounded two other officers and another suspect early Friday morning, interim Police Chief C.J. Davis said.
The officer who was killed was identified by MPD as Joseph McKinney, who joined the department in 2020. The suspect who was killed has not been identified.
A second officer was taken to a hospital but has been upgraded to non-critical condition. A third officer who was grazed by gunfire was treated at the scene.
A second suspect, who is 17 years old, also was injured. That suspect is in critical condition.
“As chief of police, I am hurt right now,” Davis said outside Regional One hospital. “Today we are here, not just to talk about what happened last night, but to make an appeal to our community that gun violence has to stop.”
The shooting happened on Hewlett Road and Horn Lake Road in Southwest Memphis.
Memphis Police say around 2 a.m., officers responded to a suspicious vehicle call at Horn Lake Road and Charter Avenue. As they approached the vehicle, a suspect fired shots at the officers, who returned fire.
The vehicle fled and was located in the 400 block of Hewlett Road. One suspect was captured immediately, while another ran from the scene and was found nearby, police said.
Davis said the 18-year-old who was killed Friday had been arrested in March, in a stolen vehicle with an illegal, modified semi-automatic weapon with a Glock switch that upgraded it to fully automatic. He was charged for two stolen vehicles and a programming device used to steal cars.
He was released without bond, she said.
LISTEN: Audio below is from police scanners during the incident. Skip to 21 minutes into the recording. Via Broadcastify.
The District Attorney and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation have been called to conduct the investigation.
Friday’s shooting is the latest in a long list of violence that has gripped Memphis. As of Tuesday, the number of homicides in the city climbed to 101, slightly behind the same period in 2023. Last year, Memphis recorded 399 homicides, the third year out of four that record had been broken.
“We need a community call to action,” Mayor Paul Young said, asking for urgent action from the community to prevent violence. “We do need community action. The only way to reverse this thing is if everybody plays a part.”
