SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. — Deputies with the Shelby County Sheriff's Office (SCSO) shot and killed a person Thursday morning in Raleigh, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) identified him as an attempted murder suspect.
SCSO said deputies tried to stop a suspect, identified as 31-year-old Johnathan Bady, who was wanted by the Germantown Police Department in connection with an attempted murder, around 7:30 a.m. on Dec. 21.
Memphis Police sent out a city watch alert for Bady at around 8 a.m., listing him as an “Endangered Adult,” diagnosed with a mental illness that requires medication.
TBI said the chase started near Crumpler Road and East Shelby Drive and deputies tried to stop Bady multiple times.
SCSO said Bady drove away, temporarily escaping deputies, who later found him at New Allen Road and Victory Ridge Cove.
“In a third attempt to stop the vehicle, at approximately 8:30 a.m., the driver crashed into an occupied vehicle and a utility pole,” said TBI Public Information Officer Keli McAlister.
That was at the at the intersection of New Allen Road and Victory Ridge Cove, where TBI says Bady crashed into an Amazon van, sending the driver to the hospital.
“It could have been me. Thank God that it didn’t happen,” said Tray Hawkins, a security guard for Nike, who works right next to Amazon. “He could have wrecked into me.”
That’s when TBI said Bady shot at three sheriff’s deputies.
“Resulting in the deputies, three deputies, returning fire, fatally wounding the suspect,” McAlister said.
The TBI is conducting the investigation into this incident.
SCSO said no deputies were injured, though the driver of the van was taken to Regional One Health in non-critical condition out of caution.
For Hawkins, this hits too close to home.
“Living in Memphis, I think about that stuff all the time,” he said.
The sheriff’s office says all three deputies are on administrative leave with pay.
ABC24 reached out to Amazon for comment but has yet to hear back.
