Four People Have Been Killed by the Memphis Task Force Since January. Speakers Asked the Shelby County Commission to Join the Lawsuit It Declined to Fund in June.

MEMPHIS, September 14, 2026 - Two speakers asked the Shelby County Commission on September 14, 2026 to take up litigation over the National Guard deployment in Memphis. Six more came back on September 28. In neither meeting did the subject appear as an agenda item.

What the speakers put on the record

The first speaker on September 14 appeared with the family of Tyron Johnson, the young man she said was shot and killed by the National Guard. She said the previous city administration had filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the deployment and that it was dismissed on the grounds that the previous mayor lacked standing and could not prove injuries. "I think we can prove injuries now," she said.

She told the Commission the suit might have gone forward had the body voted to support it, and that the family in front of them might not be there. She also said Tyron Johnson had never been convicted of a crime and had never been charged with one, "which is something that I can't say for recent members of this body."

The second speaker, a faith leader with Micah who said she has lived in Memphis 30 years, named four deaths. She said four people have been killed since January by the body the county's published record calls the Memphis Safe Task Force, and which she called the Memphis Unsafe Task Force: one on May 13, killed by Drug Enforcement Administration agents at a Burger King where he worked; one on May 20, killed by a Homeland Security agent while having a mental health crisis; Tyron Johnson on July 5, shot in the back and killed by National Guard troops in downtown Memphis; and one on July 8, killed by DEA agents at an East Memphis hotel.

She tied the request to a specific prior vote. Had the body passed the motion that came before it at the June 29, 2026 Commission meeting approving the appointment of outside counsel to review potential litigation opposing the deployment, she said, Tyron Johnson might be alive. "We can't know this for certain," she said.

What The 901 Report has already established about these four deaths

The four deaths the speaker listed are not new to this newsroom's record. The 901 Report reported on July 20, 2026 that four people had died, two of them in one week, and that pressure was building to pull the Memphis Safe Task Force. It reported on August 4, 2026 that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was examining eight use of force incidents by task force officers and that four people were dead. It reported on August 28, 2026 that the autopsy of the 20-year-old killed by Guard soldiers in July was public and that he had been shot in the back.

So the specific claim the speaker made about the manner of Tyron Johnson's death, that he was shot in the back, matches an autopsy The 901 Report has already reported on. What is new here is that the four deaths were put to the Shelby County Commission, twice, as a reason to join litigation.

The cost figure

On September 28, a speaker who identified himself as a co-chair of Micah's immigration, inclusivity and accountability committee brought numbers. He cited an August 24 analysis drawing on work by the Center for American Progress. By the end of 2026, he said, American taxpayers will have paid $1.76 billion for National Guard deployments in American cities without achieving the promised results. For Memphis, he said, deploying 1,500 Guard troops through the end of 2026 will total $319 million, which he described as the equivalent of the annual salary of 4,270 police officers, more than double the number of officers the Memphis Police Department had at the end of 2025.

He said the Guard provides logistical and operational support rather than traffic stops, patrols or arrests, so the effect on crime numbers falls on the police department and the other enforcement agencies that were already collaborating before the deployment.

A business owner and military veteran told the Commission the deployment had actively harmed small businesses, intimidated staff and alienated customers. "As a veteran, I know what military forces are designed to do," she said, "and I can tell you that this deployment has never been about the safety of Memphis."

A speaker from District 6 opened with Frederick Douglass. "For the last 364 days," she said, "Memphis and Shelby County have assisted, even if begrudgingly, in the oppression of its citizens through hypermilitarized overpolicing."

The resolution they are asking about

Speakers on September 28 referred to a resolution sponsored by Commissioner Erika Sugarmon and Commissioner Henri E. Brooks to allow the Commission to sue Governor Bill Lee over the deployment, and asked colleagues to support it.

It is not on the September 14, the September 23, the September 28 or the October 7, 2026 agenda. No commissioner spoke to it from the dais in any of those meetings. No commissioner responded to any of the eight speakers on the subject.

Commissioner Sugarmon did describe, in a different item on September 23, what happened the last time the Commission tried to legislate in this area. Speaking about a zoning ordinance she had worked on with environmental organizations, she said "that is when our attorney was withdrawn from us at that point in time," and that the Commission had no independent attorney of its own.

What happens next

The resolution speakers named has not appeared on a Commission or committee agenda through October 7, 2026. The Commission's next regular meeting after that committee was set for October 12, 2026. The 901 Report has asked the sponsors whether the resolution has been filed and has asked the county attorney's office whether it has been reviewed.

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