On the Fourth of July, two Tennessee National Guard soldiers shot and killed a 20-year-old man during a foot chase in downtown Memphis — and there is no body camera footage to show exactly what happened in the final seconds.
Story Snapshot
- Tyrin Johnson, 20, was shot twice in the chest and killed by National Guard soldiers on July 4, 2026, during a foot pursuit in downtown Memphis.
- The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says Johnson was armed, had fired shots in the area, and turned toward the soldiers with his gun before they opened fire.
- National Guard members do not wear body cameras, leaving no video to confirm or deny the key moment that justified the shooting.
- Johnson’s grandfather says the family is waiting for video evidence before accepting the official account of what happened.
What Authorities Say Happened That Morning
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) identified the victim as Tyrin Johnson and confirmed he was armed with a handgun. According to TBI, Johnson fired shots in the area before Memphis police and National Guard members began chasing him on foot. Memphis police say Johnson turned toward the two soldiers while holding the gun. The soldiers fired. Johnson was pronounced dead at the scene. No officers or soldiers were hurt.
🚔 Memphis, Tennessee — Family of man killed by National Guard demands video release
Category: National Guard shooting / Officer-involved shooting / Public accountability
Date/time: July 5 shooting; July 6 update
Location: Downtown Memphis, Tennessee
Status: TBI investigation…— WilluChill United States News. (@Will466513) July 7, 2026
The two soldiers were part of the Memphis Safe Task Force, a joint unit that pairs National Guard members with local law enforcement to patrol high-crime areas in the city. The TBI is leading the investigation, which is standard procedure when someone dies in a law enforcement shooting in Tennessee. The Shelby County District Attorney’s office will ultimately decide whether the soldiers acted within the law.
The Evidence Gap That Changes Everything
Here is the problem that no one can talk their way around. National Guard soldiers do not wear body cameras. Memphis police officers in the pursuit may have had dashcam footage, but that has not been released. The single most important factual claim — that Johnson turned toward the soldiers with a gun in his hand — rests entirely on law enforcement testimony right now. That is not an accusation of lying. It is simply a fact about what we can and cannot verify.
Forensic evidence could fill part of that gap. If the gun recovered at the scene was fired, that supports the claim that Johnson discharged a weapon before the chase. The trajectory of the two chest wounds could also speak to his position when he was shot. The TBI investigation should produce that forensic report, and the public deserves to see it. Until then, the official account is the strongest evidence available — but it is not yet complete evidence.
What Johnson’s Family Is Saying
Johnson’s grandfather, Evaniel Johnson, told ABC News that Tyrin had been carrying the gun for protection. The grandfather said Tyrin had recently been attacked in Nashville and was worried about a social media dispute. The family is not denying the gun existed. They are asking a more specific question: does any video show their grandson actually turning toward the soldiers, or was he still running when he was shot? That is a fair question, and it deserves a factual answer.
National Guard soldiers kill 20-year-old Tyrin Johnson in Memphis, Tennessee https://t.co/AbFSNxSRqm
— Angelos Papadopoulos (@angelohrg) July 7, 2026
The family’s position is understandable, but it does not yet carry the weight of counter-evidence. Grandfather Evaniel Johnson offered context for why Tyrin had the gun. He did not address why Tyrin fired shots in the area before the chase began, which is the detail that most directly explains why officers pursued him in the first place. A young man carrying a gun for protection is a very different picture from a young man firing that gun on a city street on the Fourth of July.
The Bigger Question Behind This Shooting
Memphis deployed National Guard troops to patrol its streets after years of violent crime overwhelmed the city’s police force. Democratic officials sued to stop it, arguing it violated the Tennessee Constitution’s limits on military deployments. A state appeals court overturned that injunction in April 2025, clearing the way for armed soldiers to walk beats alongside police officers. This shooting is now the most serious test of whether that policy can survive public scrutiny.
The core conservative argument for the deployment is simple: Memphis has a violence problem, and the city asked for help. That argument holds up right until the moment a soldier kills someone and there is no camera to show what happened. Body cameras exist precisely to protect both the public and the officers involved. The absence of that footage from National Guard members is a policy failure that now has a name and a face attached to it. Whatever the TBI investigation concludes, that gap needs to close before the next pursuit ends the same way.
Sources:
military.com, npr.org, newsfromthestates.com, abcnews.com
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