MEMPHIS – One person was fatally shot and a police officer was seriously injured Thursday afternoon in what authorities described on social media as a “police shooting” at a Memphis library.
Memphis police, under intense scrutiny after the shooting that killed Ture Nichols last month, said the man who was shot was pronounced dead at the scene. The officer was taken to the hospital in “critical condition,” the department said.
Police say the shooting happened after officers responded to a call at the library at 12:32 p.m.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the state agency that oversees police shootings, said on Twitter that the district attorney, Steven J. Mulroy, had asked his assistants to investigate the shooting.
The agency, which is also investigating Nichols’ death, said it would provide an update at the scene.
Neither agency released details of what led to the shooting, nor did they say who fired the shots or how many people were involved.
Police could be seen walking in and out of the Poplar-White Station Library after the shooting and cordoned it off with yellow tape.
The library is located in the small East Memphis neighborhood, surrounded by restaurants, bars and a Whole Foods store. Behind the library is a 34-story building called the Clark Tower.
Sundiata Williams, who works in Clark Tower, said she was going downstairs to get a pizza at lunch when she found security had locked the front door to her office.
He said: “It hurt me a lot. I’d come in for lunch and he’d be like, ‘No, go that way.’
Mr. Mulroy’s office is leading the trial of five Memphis police officers charged with second-degree murder in the death of Mr. Nichols after a videotaped assault in which officers beat Mr. Nichols and beat him with batons.
Jessica Jaglois contributed reports.
