MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Police appealed for calm Thursday in a tense Memphis neighborhood where a rock-throwing crowd gathered after federal marshals fatally shot a black man who, authorities said, had rammed a police vehicle with a stolen car.
Thirty-six officers suffered minor injuries from flying rocks and bricks in the hours following the death of 20-year-old Brandon Webber, who was killed Wednesday evening after he exited the car holding some type of weapon, authorities said.
Webber had been wanted in a June 3 shooting that happened during a car theft about 25 miles south of Memphis in Hernando, Mississippi. The victim was shot five times and survived. The car was the one used to ram the police vehicle, according to DeSoto County, Mississippi, District Attorney John Champion, who spoke Thursday at a news conference.
Elected officials condemned the violence, and the police chief pleaded for patience while the shooting is investigated. But unanswered questions left many people angry as they recalled other police shootings around the country.
On Thursday evening, dozens — including Webber’s father and other friends and relatives — gathered near the house where he was shot.
A couple of men spoke into megaphones and some motorists who drove by honked their horns and shouted messages of encouragement. There was a light police presence with a couple police cars parked at a nearby fire station that was damaged during Wednesday night’s unrest.
Shortly after Wednesday’s shooting, people began to gather in the area, and their numbers swelled as some livestreamed the scene on social media. Memphis police initially responded in street uniforms, then returned in riot gear as people began hurling rocks and bricks.
During the unrest, officers cordoned off several blocks in the Frayser neighborhood north of downtown and arrested three people. By 11 p.m., officers had used tear gas and most of the crowd dispersed, Police Director Michael Rallings said.
Rallings implored residents to wait until the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, or TBI, finished its investigation.
