MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Nearly one week since an officer-involved shooting in Southwest Memphis, the news officer Joseph McKinney may have been killed by friendly fire carries a heavy weight for members of the Memphis Police Department.
“This is the situation we all dread,” said Sgt. Matt Cunningham, “When you have a situation like that, everything is very chaotic…Of course the thought process among them is ‘Am I the one? Am I the guy? Am I the person that did it?’”
Cunningham is the president of the Memphis Police Association and said these instances of death by friendly fire are uncommon across the country.
Last year, according to the Officer Down Memorial page, out of the 136 officers who died in the line of duty, the only case of inadvertent gunfire occurred during a training session. In Memphis, the last time an officer died from friendly fire was 30 years ago, when Major Rufus Gates was shot by a fellow officer back in 1994.
“Nobody goes out in training in the academy and says, ‘Okay, you’re the police officer, I’m going to shoot some bullets at you,’ that doesn’t happen. So even in the best training, these things happen under stress when people are trying to kill you,’” said Bennie Cobb, Retired Law Enforcement Captain.
Cunningham mentioned to reporters Thursday MPD’s two-week firearm training exceeds the state standard, but even with the 21-week training academy, moments like last Friday are hard to prepare for.
“When you have more people there, the possibility is greater that you could be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Cunningham.
Still with a heavy heart, McKinney’s brothers-in-arm stand by the side of the loved ones of the fallen officer, hoping one day the healing will start.
“I want to offer my condolences to officer McKinney’s family and the Memphis Police Department,” said Cobb. “The city is hurting, the Memphis Police Department is hurting, and it’s going to be a while before the healing begins.”
There are still several questions about the shooting ABC24 is looking into, including who were the responding officers and which officer was potentially responsible for shooting McKinney.
ABC24 reached out to the City of Memphis for access to the video from the shooting Apr. 12, including body camera, dash cam and SkyCop camera footage to shine more light on what happened. However, the request was denied by the city due to the ongoing investigation.