The TBI Is Investigating Eight Use of Force Incidents by Memphis Safe Task Force Officers. Four People Are Dead.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating eight use of force incidents involving officers assigned to the Memphis Safe Task Force, according to information the agency provided to the Tennessee Lookout.

Seven of the eight involved officers firing their weapons. Those seven produced four deaths. The eighth incident, according to a TBI spokesperson, involved someone being run over.

A TBI spokesperson said all task force use of force investigations are active and ongoing.

No officer has been charged in any of these incidents, and no investigative finding has been publicly released in any of them. Every officer involved is entitled to the presumption that they acted lawfully unless a finding says otherwise. This post reports what the state investigative agency says it is examining, not what it has concluded.

What the task force is

The Memphis Safe Task Force was created by presidential executive order in September 2025. It is a multi-agency operation combining federal agents, Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers, and Tennessee National Guard members.

The U.S. Marshals Service has put its size at roughly 350 federal agents and about 1,450 Tennessee National Guard members, according to NPR. It operates in the largest majority-Black city in the country.

The four deaths

Darrin Pigram was shot and killed on May 13, 2026 by a Drug Enforcement Administration agent assigned to the task force. The TBI opened its investigation at the request of 30th Judicial District Attorney General Steve Mulroy. According to a preliminary TBI statement, Pigram reached for a weapon in his waistband as task force members approached him while serving a warrant at a Burger King. Reporting by the Tennessee Lookout established that the warrant stemmed from a January dispute with neighbors over the volume of music.

The TBI identified him as Darrin Pigram, with a date of birth of February 7, 1985, making him 41 at the time of the shooting. The bureau said the shooting occurred just before 9:30 a.m. on May 13, 2026, in the 2600 block of North Hollywood, and that no law enforcement personnel were injured.

Jonah Neal, 25, was shot later that same month by a Homeland Security Investigations special agent. Task force members had responded to a report of an armed man threatening to harm himself. His mother had called for help.

The cause of Neal's death is not settled in the public record. The TBI said at the time it was not immediately clear whether Neal died as a result of the agent firing on him or from self-inflicted stab wounds.

A December shooting involved a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper.

In July, a man was killed when DEA agents serving a drug warrant at a hotel room knocked down the door after he refused to open it. A Marshals Service release said the man was killed after pointing a handgun at task force members. The TBI's account was less specific, stating that for reasons still under investigation the situation escalated, resulting in a DEA agent firing into a room and killing a man. That was the second fatal task force shooting in four days.

In one deadly encounter, according to NPR, the officers who fired were two National Guard soldiers.

Why It Matters for Memphis

Four people are dead in encounters with a federal operation deployed to this city, and the public record on all four consists of preliminary statements.

The accountability question is not whether the shootings were justified. That is what the TBI is examining, and the newsroom does not have the file. The question is narrower and answerable: what happens when those investigations conclude.

TBI investigations of officer-involved shootings are typically forwarded to the local district attorney for a charging decision. Task force incidents complicate that path, because the officers involved are federal agents and National Guard members rather than local police, and jurisdiction over a federal agent's conduct is not the same as jurisdiction over a Memphis officer's. Whether a Shelby County district attorney can charge a DEA agent, and whether the U.S. Attorney or the Justice Department would instead, is the mechanism a Memphis resident needs explained.

None of it has been explained publicly.

There is a case on the other side and it belongs here. Senator Bill Hagerty has publicly defended the task force, saying in a campaign spot that he empowered it and crediting it with turning the city around. Memphis Police data shows violent crime down sharply during the deployment. Supporters argue that armed encounters are an inherent risk of enforcement operations and that eight use of force incidents across roughly 1,800 personnel over eleven months is not a pattern.

The counterargument is that a Memphis resident cannot evaluate either claim without a single completed investigation to read.

Accountability Watch

Who is accountable: The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which holds all eight investigations. The Shelby County District Attorney's office, the customary recipient of a completed TBI use of force file. The U.S. Marshals Service, which leads the task force. The Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Tennessee National Guard, whose personnel were involved.

What is pending: All eight TBI investigations. A public statement on who holds charging authority over federal agents and Guard members assigned to the task force.

Timeline: Task force created by executive order September 2025. Pigram killed May 2026. Neal killed later in May 2026. A Tennessee Highway Patrol shooting in December 2025. Two fatal shootings in four days in July 2026. TBI count of eight use of force incidents reported July 2026.

Status as of August 4, 2026: All investigations active and ongoing. No charges filed. No findings released.

How to verify: The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation confirms the status of officer-involved investigations and issued preliminary statements in several of these incidents. The U.S. Marshals Service is the task force lead and the point of contact for its size and composition. The Shelby County District Attorney's office can state whether it has received any completed file.