Second person in 4 days is fatally shot in Memphis by a federal task force member

The shooting occurred while Drug Enforcement Administration agents were serving a drug warrant at a hotel room, a U.S. Marshals Service spokesman said.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A member of a federal crime-fighting task force in Memphis shot and killed a person there on Wednesday, the second fatal shooting by a task force member in four days, and the fourth death involving the unit since it started in September.

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The shooting occurred while U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents were serving a drug warrant at a hotel room, U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Brady McCarron said. When the suspect refused to open the door for agents, they knocked the door down, McCarron said.

A news release from the Marshals Service sent out earlier in the day said the man was killed after pointing a handgun at task force members. A later news release from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the circumstances of the shooting, is less specific. It says only, “For reasons still under investigation, the situation escalated, resulting in a DEA agent firing into a room, striking a man and killing him.”