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One person has died and a police officer is in critical condition after a shooting at a library in Memphis.
Authorities with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said two Memphis police departments were responding at a business near the Poplar-White Station Library.
Finally, the ‘conflicted man’ made his way to the library, where the librarians called the police on him around 12:30 p.m.
Once they arrived on the scene, TBI authorities say, the man shot one of the officers. His partner then shot and killed the suspect. All three individuals are believed to be black men.
An anonymous officer was later transported to a local hospital where he was in “extremely critical condition.” He was operated on Thursday afternoon.
The police-involved shooting occurred just one day after the victim of police violence Tire Nichols was buried.
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy has now asked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to take over the investigation.
Memphis Police were at the scene of a Poplar-White Station Library in East Memphis at 12:32 p.m. where an officer was shot. He was in “extremely critical condition” Thursday afternoon.
Witnesses at the scene said they heard five shots coming from inside the building.
The scene was secured at 1 p.m., Memphis police said, but the library will remain closed until further notice.
Library staff have been evacuated and are in a safe location, according to an email sent to staff obtained by WREG.
Witnesses at the scene said they heard five shots from inside the building Thursday afternoon.
Rubbie King, for example, said WREG she was in the library to use the internet for an interview.
When he turned on the lights in the conference room, he said he heard five shots inside the building.
At that point, King said she decided to look outside the conference room, where she saw a woman on the floor screaming and a man reaching out to help her up and into cover. The woman was apparently not shot, he said.
She said she did not see the shooter, but did see officers watching someone on the floor, who she was told to stay put.
King explained: “I did a quick assessment to see if there were any other people with a gun. I mean I did a quick scan of the area because where the study room is it’s all glass.
“I didn’t turn off the light again because if there was someone else present and they had turned off the light, it would have been noticeable,” he recounted. ‘So I made my way around the room and then headed out the door. I didn’t run. I just walked out the door because I didn’t want to draw attention to my leaving the library.
Andrea Sansone also recounted how she was driving down Poplar Street in the busy commercial area lined with nearby offices, restaurants and shops when the shooting occurred.
He said he noticed a woman running out of the building with a child in her arms. That woman told her that she was about to go into the library when she saw others running out and she heard gunshots.
“The look of horror on his face caught my attention,” Sansone said.
She added: ‘We need to be praying for our city. We need to put on our armor daily in this city.
‘I love this city. I was born and raised in this city, so seeing things like that bothers me because we have a bad reputation,” she said.
“It’s a really orderly city and I would just say continue to pray for it and pray hard.”
One person was pronounced dead at the scene when officers arrived Thursday afternoon.
A Memphis police officer was taken to a local hospital in “extremely critical condition”
The shooting came just a day after Tire Nichols’ funeral in the city.
The shooting came just a day after civil rights leaders called for police reform following the death of Tire Nichols last month after being severely beaten by several Memphis officers.
At Wednesday’s funeral, Vice President Kamala Harris urged Congress to pass the George Floyd Fair Policing Act, saying it is “non-negotiable.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton also called for an end to qualified immunity and condemned the officers who killed the unarmed 29-year-old on January 7.
“You don’t fight crime by becoming a criminal yourself,” he said.
‘You don’t fight gangs by becoming five men against one unarmed man. That’s not surveillance, that’s punks.
If that man had been white, I don’t think you would have hit him that night. We are not asking for anything special, we are just asking to be treated fairly.
Sharpton also echoed Harris’ call for passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, as he said people would have to pay the “same dues” of the civil rights era to make meaningful change. .
Addressing the family of Tire Nichols, Sharpton said: “We’ll be there with them when the cameras are gone, when there’s no longer a story… no matter how long.”
We are engaged in this fight together.
Vice President Kamala Harris called Wednesday for passage of the George Floyd Fair Policing Act in the wake of the death of Tire Nichols.
The Reverend Al Sharpton told Tire Nichols’ parents that he would continue to support them.
Taking the stage after Sharpton, civil rights attorney Ben Crump thanked the reverend for his work bringing attention to police brutality.
“For every George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, there are hundreds of people who are being killed,” he said.
‘Without the local activists, we would never have heard the name of Tire Nichols.’
The lawyer also reflected Sharpton’s support for police reform, noting that there would be a “duty to intervene” policy built into the George Floyd Fair Policing Act.
“On this call to action, we build his legacy,” he added.
“We have to remember Memphis…it’s important that the community see speedy justice.”
Meanwhile, Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn, made a harrowing call for police reform, echoing the calls of Vice President Harris and Ben Crump, urged Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
She said: ‘We need to pass that bill because if we don’t, the next child that dies, that blood is going to be on their hands.
‘The only thing that keeps me going is believing that my son was sent on a mission. And now that the task is over, he has gone home.
Tire was a beautiful person.