MEMPHIS, Tenn.– We are learning more about the woman that was killed by a Memphis police officer outside a McDonald’s on Wednesday.
Memphis Police said they were checking out a stolen Ford Fusion from Olive Branch, Mississippi near Third and Brooks. When they attempted to stop the woman, she refused. She struck a police vehicle and police say an officer fired.
She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation identified her Thursday as 25 year-old Kayla Lucas.
Lucas has been described by those that knew her as person who always found herself in trouble, but they say that doesn’t define who she was.
New details are emerging about the moments leading up to Kayla Lucas being shot and killed by a Memphis police officer.
Edward Faherty said his friend of 10 years asked him to pull her car out the mud.
“Yesterday morning about 11:30 she had messaged me,” he said.
After doing so, he later realized it was the same stolen vehicle involved in deadly shooting outside a McDonald’s on South Third Street in southwest Memphis, leaving him emotional.
“One I was mad at her for ramming the police car because she knew what would happen. I was mad at her for being so violent toward herself like that and two heart broke because she was a good friend,” he said.
Since 2017, Lucas has had several run-ins with law enforcement in Shelby County. She was arrested for theft of property, evading arrest, drug possession and most recently for criminal trespassing at a motel on Shelby Oaks Drive on Dec. 8.
Court documents listed her address as Walls, Mississippi. WREG stopped by her house to speak with family but they declined to talk.
Faherty believes her past is not indicative of the kind person she was.
“She wasn’t always correct in the way that she went about doing things,” he said. “When you look at someone’s potential she had the potential to do anything she wanted. I just don’t think she got the opportunity to do it correctly.”
Lucas leaves behind two young boys and grieving friends and family.
WREG also learned Thursday that the MPD officer who fired the shot has been relived of duty pending an investigation. The TBI is now leading that investigation.