Authorities name driver fatally shot by deputies in Memphis after he sped toward them

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This article was published 28/04/2024 (847 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Authorities say they have identified a man who was fatally shot by sheriff’s deputies after he sped toward them in a vehicle while the officers were serving a drug-related search warrant in a Memphis neighborhood Friday.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says the man who died in the incident was 30-year-old James Q. Hampton.

Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner said deputies were serving the high-risk drug warrant that afternoon when a man who was waiting in a vehicle drove toward a SWAT team at high speed in the Orange Mound neighborhood.

Deputies opened fire, killing the driver, Bonner said. No deputies were hurt.

Authorities were “working to independently determine the series of events leading to the shooting,” the bureau said in a statement.

Three people were arrested in the search and face drug-related charges, court records show. One of them also faces a charge for having a gun during a dangerous felony, and another faces an additional charge of stealing a car. Arrest affidavits described the search warrant location as a “base of operations” for people involved in a drug trafficking organization.

During the search, deputies found several firearms with high-capacity magazines and a handgun equipped with a Glock switch, a device that turns a pistol into an automatic weapon, Bonner said. They also found several pounds of marijuana, a few Xanax and oxycodone pills, and thousands of dollars in cash at that property and in a backyard next door, which four others used to run away, an arrest affidavit says.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is looking into the shooting, which came six days after nine people were shot at an Orange Mound park. Two men were killed, and seven other people were wounded but survived. No arrests have been made.

It also took place two weeks after Memphis Police Officer Joseph McKinney was killed in a shootout that developed while officers were investigating a suspicious vehicle. One suspect also was killed.