OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY GENERAL

30th JUDICIAL DISTRICT~SHELBY COUNTY, TENNESSEE

201 Poplar Avenue, Third Floor, Memphis, TN 38103-1947
Tel. 901-222-1300 ~ Fax 901-222-7971

www.scdag.com
AMY WEIRICH

@AmyWeirichDA ShelbyCountyDA

District Attorney General

Private and Confidential

Not for Distribution

Contact:
Shelby County District Attorney
901-222-1503 desk
901-222-1305 fax
info@scdag.com

Oct. 28, 2016

Director Michael Rallings
Memphis Police Department
201 Poplar Ave.
Memphis, TN
Re: The officer-involved shooting incident that included Memphis Police Officers
and
on Jan. 27, 2016, near Mississippi Boulevard and
867 South Parkway East that resulted in the death of Jonathon Bratcher (aka Jonathan
Bratcher).
Dear Director Rallings:
I have reviewed the investigative file compiled and given to me by the Violent Crime Response
Team of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) following the fatal shooting of Jonathon
Bratcher earlier this year. My role is not to establish law enforcement policy and procedures or
training requirements, nor to determine disciplinary action or civil liability. My sole decision
following the review is that no criminal charges will be filed against these officers and no indictments
will be requested of the Shelby County Grand Jury.
Summary of Facts
On Jan. 27, 2016, between 2:30 p.m. and 3 p.m., Memphis Police Officer
observed
a gold 2008 Chevrolet Impala operating in a reckless manner and stopped the vehicle at Deadrick and
Buntyn in Orange Mound. As the officer exited his vehicle, the gold Impala drove away. Officer
followed at a normal speed without blue lights or siren.
As the Impala was traveling westbound on South Parkway, the driver made a U-turn in the
intersection at Mississippi Boulevard, struck a white SUV, rolled about 30 feet and came to rest in the
eastbound lane of South Parkway, partially on the curb. As Officer
pulled up, the driver,
Jonathon Bratcher, and his passenger,
bailed out and ran in opposite directions.

As Bratcher ran east, Officer

and Shelby County Sheriffs Deputy
who was
traveling on South Parkway and stopped to assist, noticed a dark-colored handgun in Bratchers right
hand. The gun had an extended magazine clip and a blue bandana was wrapped around the handle.
Deputy
yelled gun and gave two loud commands for Bratcher to stop and drop his weapon.
Bratcher responded by firing shots at Deputy
Officer
shouted Police. Stop. Drop the
weapon, and fired shots at Bratcher to defend Deputy
Officer
dove to the ground when
Bratcher pointed his weapon in his direction. Officer
said Bratchers weapon sounded like a
machine gun and was non-stop.
Bratcher then ran around the corner of St. Andrews Church and into the parking lot, with Officer
in pursuit. The two traded shots and Officer
told people coming out of the church to go
back inside. Officer
stopped his patrol car on South Parkway and fired shots at
Bratcher when he saw the suspect shooting at Officers
Officer
then retrieved his
shotgun from his patrol car and ran back toward Bratcher, but lost sight of the suspect.
Officer
exchanged more shots with Bratcher, who had gotten behind cars in the church
parking lot. With more people coming out of the church to investigate, Officer
became
concerned for their safety. I came to a point where I had to end it and aim for his head. That was the
only thing visible, Officer
said.
He said Bratcher was on the other side of the parked cars behind New Bethel Missionary Baptist
Church when the round struck him. Officer
estimated they were 20 to 25 yards apart. The
officer slowly approached the suspect, removed the gun from his hand and placed him in handcuffs.
Officer
said he shot Bratcher out of fear and trying to protect another officer (Deputy
and possibly other citizens. He said he did not see Officer
until after the shooting.
Paramedics arrived and placed the time of death at 3:14 p.m. An autopsy later showed the cause of
death to be a gunshot wound to the back of the head with an adjacent partial exit wound. The range of
fire was indeterminate. There also was a graze wound on the upper part of the left arm.
Officer
said he fired approximately 16 rounds during the incident. Officer
estimated
he fired five to eight rounds. Deputy
did not fire his weapon. A Springfield Armory 40-cal. Smith
& Wesson pistol was next to Bratchers body. The slide on the pistol was locked back to the rear and
an extended magazine in the pistol was empty.
Investigators recovered 31 .40-cal. cartridge casings from the crime scene. The two officers who
fired their weapons and Bratcher all had .40-cal. weapons. TBI ballistics experts later determined
that, based on comparisons with the casings that were recovered, Officer
fired 16 times, Officer
fired eight times and Bratcher fired six times. One casing was weathered and apparently had
been at the scene before the incident.
Deputy
was wearing a body camera that recorded the sound of gunfire, but was not in a
position to record video of the fatal shooting.
The passenger who ran from Bratchers gold Chevrolet,
was taken into custody 10
minutes later at South Parkway and Kerr. He was not charged.
said Bratcher was pulled over
for speeding, but then drove away from police because he had a gun and a previous felony conviction.
said the gun had a big magazine with a blue bandana wrapped around it. Bratcher placed the
gun in his lap while driving.
said police pursued them for about 15 minutes until their vehicle
crashed into two others at South Parkway and Mississippi Boulevard.

LAY WITNESSES
There were numerous lay witnesses, but none saw the entire incident, or the fatal shooting.
was westbound on South Parkway and saw a police officer and a deputy chasing the driver
who had something in his hand that appeared to be blue. He heard pop, pop followed by pop, pop,
pop, pop. He saw the driver running from police and dirt flying up around his feet. The deputy was
still chasing him, while the police officer was on the ground crawling toward the church. He thought
the officer had been hit.
When the light turned green and traffic began to move,
saw the officer getting up. He saw
the suspect crawling on the ground toward a car parked beside the church, still moving to get away.
He said he heard at least 15 to 17 shots.
. and
were in a vehicle that was struck by the gold Chevrolet as it turned in front
of them at South Parkway and Mississippi Boulevard. They said the Chevrolet then struck a second
vehicle.
said the two men in the Chevrolet got out and ran in opposite directions. He said one
man ran in front of the church and that when he was out of sight there were about 10 gunshots from
two different guns, since one was louder than the other.
said he saw two police officers chasing
the driver and then heard about 20 gunshots. He said he heard several rapid shots, then slower ones,
then nothing for a few seconds and then one final shot.
said she heard about 20 gunshots of
two different sounds, but she could not see what was happening.
an employee of an
in
heard a screeching sound like
squealing tires outside the office window. He saw a man running in front of the church with what
appeared to be a gun in his right hand. He also saw officers with guns drawn and heard shooting. He
then got on a two-way radio and told other school officials to put the school on lockdown.
looked out the window and saw the running man now lying on the ground and a police
officer run to the man and give him first-aid chest compressions. He did not see the shooting, but he
did hear bullets strike the church.
another employee of the academy, walked out into a hallway and saw
lying on the
ground. He said
told him he heard gunshots, and
then ran to his classroom and told the
students to get on the floor.
looked out the window and saw a mans body on the ground and
police officers taking cover behind a tree. He said those officers then ran to the man on the ground
and tried to help resuscitate him.
was driving to her childrens daycare when she saw a police car behind another vehicle that
had crashed. She began to video the incident with her cellphone as a man ran from officers. Soon after
the man was out of sight she heard several gunshots.
said he witnessed some of the incident and that he recorded the end of the incident with his
cellphone. He gave an interview to a local reporter, but would not talk with the TBI.
Legal Analysis and Conclusion of Law
Criminal liability is established only if all the elements of an offense outlined by statute are proven
beyond a reasonable doubt and that the offense is committed without legal justification. Use of deadly
force by a law enforcement officer is justified in circumstances as addressed in TCA 39-11-620:

An officer may use deadly force in order to effect an arrest if all other reasonable means of
apprehension have been exhausted or are unavailable, and where feasible, has given notice of the
officers identity as such and given a warning that deadly force may be used unless resistance or
flight ceases, and has probable cause to believe the individual to be arrested has committed a felony
involving the infliction or threatened infliction of serious bodily injury or probable cause to believe
that the individual to be arrested poses a threat of serious bodily injury, either to the officer or to
others unless immediately apprehended.
These justifications are affirmative defenses which means an officer accused of a crime for using
deadly force does not need to prove that he or she was justified in using such force, but rather the
prosecution would have to prove the deadly force was not justified. Thus, the question before me is
this: Would a jury find beyond a reasonable doubt, unanimously, that Officer
or Officer
acted without lawful justification? The answer is no.
I believe a jury would find that Officer
and Officer
had lawful justification to fire their
weapons at Bratcher in self-defense, in the defense of others and in order to affect the arrest. Bratcher
had already shown his disregard for the safety of others by recklessly making a U-turn at a crowded
intersection and crashing into two other vehicles. He ran from his vehicle carrying a loaded .40-cal.
pistol with an extended magazine clip. Bratcher opened fire on Deputy
and then on Officer
endangering their lives as well as the lives of numerous motorists and their passengers driving
on South Parkway. There also were two churches in the immediate vicinity, including one in which
teachers and school children had to get down on the floor when they heard gunfire. Both officers were
clearly in uniform, yet Bratcher fired numerous rounds at them while trying to avoid arrest.
Officer
said he saw Bratcher first shooting at Deputy
and that he shouted, Police. Stop.
Drop the weapon. Officer
fired two or three shots at Bratcher and then dove to the ground
when Bratcher pointed his gun at him and opened fire with what sounded to Officer
like a
machine gun. Bratcher was a convicted felon with illegal possession of a firearm who knew he was
going back to prison if apprehended.
Near the end of the running gun battle with officers, in which Bratcher endangered numerous lives,
he hid behind parked cars and continued firing. Officer
again told onlookers to get back inside
the church for their safety, and said he came to a point where I had to end it and aim for his head.
That was the only thing visible. The fatal shot struck Bratcher in the back of the head and was fired
from a distance Officer
estimated to be 20 to 25 yards.
Our U.S. Supreme Court has observed that the calculus of reasonableness must embody allowance
for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments in circumstances
that are tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving about the amount of force that is necessary in a
particular situation. Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989.) The court further stated that the
reasonableness of force by an officer must be judged from the perspective of the officer at the scene,
rather than judged with the benefit of hindsight.
Weighing the totality of circumstances of Jan. 27, 2016, no criminal charges will be filed and no
indictments will be sought against Officer
or Officer
in the death of Jonathon Bratcher.
Sincerely,
Amy P. Weirich
Shelby County District Attorney General