MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Memphis Police officer who was shot at an East Memphis library while responding to a trespassing complaint has died, according to the Memphis Police Department (MPD).
Officers were called to the library Feb. 2 and encountered a man who had been the subject of a trespassing call in the same neighborhood, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Keli McAlister said.
The TBI said the man had started a confrontation with another person inside the library, and when two officers attempted to talk with him, he pulled out a weapon and shot one of them.
The TBI also confirmed that the other officer returned fire, shooting and killing Torence Jackson Jr., 28, of Indianapolis.
Now, after 15 days of communities rallying for 49-year-old Geoffrey Redd's recovery, the former marine has died in the hospital, according to MPD.
There were employees and patrons inside the library at the time of the shooting, but no one else was injured, McAlister said.
The TBI is working on the case at the request of the Shelby County prosecutor. The bureau often investigates shootings and other use-of-force incidents around the state when officers are involved.
Officer Redd became part of the Memphis department 15 years ago — in February 2008, according to MPD.
MPD said that he served citizens of Memphis working at Old Allen, Union, Raines, Mount Moraih, Ridgeway and Appling Farms Stations.
Redd was a husband, father and the Director of Security at his church.
“He also found his wife here — they got married in September,” Bishop Porter of Greater Community Temple said.
Officer Redd became a part of the Greater Community Temple while working his typical patrol route for MPD many years ago.
“He would come through and check our facilities out at night and drive through in the parking lot,” Bishop Porter said. “Sometimes [he would] sit here until ladies finish going back and forth to their cars just securing the area.”
Bishop Porter said many visited Redd in the hospital.
"You see a sea of officers with tears in their eyes. Why? Cause they realize it could’ve been them," he said.