MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Authorities who said they had video evidence of a fatal encounter between a deputy and a 26-year-old man at a Memphis apartment complex have backtracked, saying they were “incorrect.”
Antonio Jackson was killed Monday after Shelby County deputies say he tried to use his car as a weapon against them, forcing them to fire. Jackson died later at a hospital.
“To prevent this deadly attack our deputy shot at the driver,” Lt. Dallas Wolfe with the sheriff’s department said at the time.
Originally, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told us “All existing camera footage was collected from all deputies involved and turned over to the TBI.”
But Wednesday they backtracked, instead saying, “We incorrectly thought there was footage but have since learned there was none available.”
WREG has covered past incidents where Shelby County Sheriff’s deputies were wearing body cameras and had dash-camera video of what happened, like a 2019 scene at a hotel when law enforcement said they shot at a fleeing suspect.
That’s why we asked about body and dash camera footage from the scene on Monday.
We went to a press conference this morning held by the sheriff’s office, hoping to ask about the camera policy and find out why they now say there’s no footage from this recent deadly shooting.
But a spokesperson declined our on-camera interview request, instead reiterating off camera that he’d made a mistake.
To be sure, we checked deputy vehicles parked outside the county jail. Some of them were equipped with dash cameras.
If you visit the Memphis Police Department’s website, you can find a link to their body camera police on the home page.
But there’s no such information available on Shelby County’s site. As a result, we have asked the department about its policy on how many deputies wear cameras and how many cars have them.
We are still waiting to hear back.
