MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Community leaders are demanding answers in Memphis police shooting that left a 25-year-old man in critical condition.
They want to know if Martavious Banks was targeted when he was pulled over.
As crowds gathered outside the shooting scene on Gill Avenue, the questions started swirling. Why was Banks stopped in the first place?
Police later confirmed he had been pulled over for not having insurance, immediately raising a red flag for many.
Josh Spickler thinks it boils down to bad policing. His Just City organization serves as an advocate for people dealing with the justice system.
“They are stopping this car to see who is inside, to see if they might find something on him and to see if he might have a warrant,” Spickler said.
He says this was Memphis’ equivalent of stop and frisk.
“It’s not a crime to have your insurance unverifiable outside the vehicle from another vehicle. You have to present registration and insurance once you are stopped, but this was not running a traffic light. This was not fleeing the scene of a crime. This was not even a cracked tail light. This was purely hunting for something.”
What happened that led to Banks being shot is racing even more questions.
Spickler says it’s time for the community to demand better and for police to do better.
“I think the community should no longer stand for police making these pre-textual traffic stops, because the risk are too high. The rewards are to few,” he said.
These questions about why Banks was shot and why those police cameras were turned off are being sorted out by TBI. But the police department is looking at this administratively as well to see if policy was violated.
The mayor says he has directed his staff to conduct their investigation as quickly as possible.
