**WARNING: Some of the videos may be disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy released videos from three different cases of shootings involving law enforcement Tuesday and has decided to not criminally charge the officers or deputies involved.
“In all three of those cases, we had previously declined to bring prosecution against the law enforcement officers and our declination letters are already publicly available,” Mulroy said. “But I know that you have interest in seeing the videos and so redacted videos are now going to be made available today.”
In one case, dash cam video shows Shelby County deputies trying to pull over a white SUV in March. You can see the driver, Melissa Horton, initially seems to comply but then appears to try to take off again and go around another deputy before she’s boxed in.
Deputies pursued her after getting a call that she tried to shoot her fiancé. Soon, two deputies approached with guns drawn.
“Hey don’t move that truck! Get f*** out the truck! Get out this mother **** truck! Let me see your hands! She’s got a shot gun,” one of the deputies said in the video.
If you look closely, you can see Horton appear to grab something off her dashboard.
“The video shows that, unfortunately, she lifted a shotgun and pointed it towards one of the deputies, so she was armed, and that was one of the main reasons why we decided that criminal charges against the officers or the deputies were not warranted,” said Mulroy.
See videos from the Melissa Horton case here
Another video released Tuesday showed the shooting death of Corey Brewer, who was wanted in connection to a fatal shooting. Multiple Memphis Police officers pursued him in June 2022.
The District Attorney’s office said he pointed a gun at the officers.
See videos from the Corey Brewer case here
Videos from December 2022 showing the death of Latoris Taylor were also released Tuesday.
A Memphis Police officer spotted Taylor in a stolen car, and he ran as the officer approached. Investigators said as he ran, he shot at the officer twice.
Security footage from a home in the South Memphis neighborhood captured the moments. He appears to point something at the officer. The video shows the officer shot back, striking and killing him.
In a video from another angle, you can hear the exchange of gunfire from the officer’s car before the chase. See videos from the Latoris Taylor case here
It’s important to note the office isn’t releasing the videos in their entirety.
“And consistent with our recent and new policy, we’re showing the most relevant portions of it. The events that led up to the interaction with the citizen, the actual fatal encounter itself and the immediate afterwards in a redacted form,” Mulroy said.
All three cases were initially investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and reviewed by the Shelby County Justice Review Unit, which was launched by the DA’s office.
The release of the three videos came during the same press conference in which Mulroy announced that no charges would filed against a Shelby County deputy in the fatal shooting of Jarveon Hudspeth.
Mulroy’s decision not to prosecute in that case drew a response from Sheriff Floyd Bonner:
“We wish the DA would confine himself to his job and stop reviewing officers’ decision-making processes when he has not learned enough to be able to do so. We join others in urging him to take courses in Force Science.”
