A newly released autopsy report has upended the initial official account of the July 5 fatal shooting of 20-year-old Tyrin Johnson by Tennessee National Guard members in Memphis, confirming the single bullet that killed him entered the man’s back rather than his chest. The document, obtained by the BBC from the West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center Office of the Medical Examiner, details that the fatal bullet pierced Johnson’s right back, traveled through his lung, and exited through his upper right chest. This finding directly contradicts the original narrative shared by law enforcement, which claimed Johnson was shot twice in the chest by guard members after he confronted them with a weapon.
Included in the autopsy report is an investigative narrative from a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) agent, which recounts the sequence of events as originally told to investigators. According to the agent’s account, Memphis police and National Guard troops were dispatched to the area following reports of nearby gunfire. When they encountered Johnson, the narrative states, he reached toward his waistband, and after officers observed him drawing a firearm, they opened fire, claiming he was struck once in the chest. Separately, the report notes Johnson was carrying a loaded handgun magazine, a detail that comes amid Tennessee’s permissive gun laws that allow legal gun owners to carry weapons openly.
Johnson’s family has renewed demands for full transparency and legal accountability in the wake of the autopsy’s conflicting findings. Evaniel Johnson, the victim’s grandfather and a former Nashville correctional officer, told the Associated Press that officials owe the public clarity about what occurred. “Be transparent – you shot him in the back,” he said. “I just want to make sure somebody be responsible for what happened. Some accountability. They ain’t never going to bring my grandson back. If he ain’t caused you no threat, you have no reason to be killing.”
Andre Wharton, the Johnson family’s attorney, who provided a copy of the autopsy to the BBC, said the new evidence confirms the family’s long-held concerns about the encounter with the Memphis Safe Task Force. “The autopsy findings reinforce the serious concerns we have regarding Tyrin’s shooting and the circumstances surrounding his encounter with the Memphis Safe Task Force,” Wharton said in a formal statement. “The fact that Tyrin was actually shot in the back, contrasted with officer and task force’s accounts, only further underscores the devastating nature of this encounter.”
The medical examiner officially listed Johnson’s cause of death as a homicide, a classification that denotes a death caused by another person and does not inherently indicate criminal intent. To date, no criminal charges have been filed against any of the involved guard members. When approached by the BBC for comment on the conflicting autopsy findings, the TBI declined to issue a new statement, pointing instead to its original July announcement and confirming the investigation remains active and ongoing. The agency also clarified that early claims that Johnson turned and pointed a weapon at guardsmen were never distributed by the TBI itself. The Tennessee National Guard has not yet responded to repeated requests for comment from the BBC.
State Representative Justin Pearson, a Memphis Democrat, publicly weighed in on the case Friday, posting a statement to the social platform X calling for a full, independent investigation. “Johnson should be alive today,” Pearson wrote, adding that “The National Guard is not welcome here. Mr Johnson’s murder is a horrifying example of the brutality and injustice the Memphis Unsafe Task Force has brought to our city.”
The National Guard deployment to Memphis is part of the broader Memphis Safe Task Force, an initiative launched under the current presidential administration’s policy to deploy National Guard troops to major U.S. cities. Former President and current presidential candidate Donald Trump framed the deployment, which is concentrated primarily in Democrat-led municipalities including Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C., as a targeted measure to combat rising violent crime across urban centers.