Katie Fretland, and Daniel Connolly

The Commercial Appeal

Shelby County Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins on Friday granted the release of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation file of the fatal police shooting of Jonathon Bratcher.

No charges for officers who shot Jonathon Bratcher

The District Attorney's office released a letter summarizing the investigative findings and said it planned to release the rest of the investigative file next week, along with some video.

The letter said officers killed Bratcher after a car chase, then a foot chase in which he fired shots at them from a .40-caliber pistol with an extended magazine.

The letter says one of the officers traded shots with Bratcher, who had gotten behind cars in a church parking lot. People were coming out of the church to investigate, and the letter says the officer was concerned for their safety. “I came to a point where I had to end it and aim for his head. That was the only thing visible,” the officer is quoted as saying.

The officers' names are redacted in the summary letter. But officials have already identified the two officers involved in the shooting: Clement Marks is black. The other officer, Alexander Fleites, is white.

An autopsy showed the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the back of the head, according to the letter.

The letter says that investigators found 31 .40-caliber shell casings at the scene and that the two officers and Bratcher all had .40-caliber weapons. The TBI later determined that one of the officers fired 16 times, the other officer fired eight times, and Bratcher fired six times. Another shell casing was weathered and had apparently been at the scene before the incident, the report says.

A third officer, an unidentified Sheriff’s Deputy, was also at the shooting scene but did not fire.

The release of the file comes amid a national environment of increased scrutiny of fatal shootings by police officers, especially of African-Americans like Bratcher.

Anger over police shootings led to the Black Lives Matter movement and protests across the U.S. in recent years, including the dramatic shutdown of the Hernando de Soto bridge over the Mississippi River this summer. That standoff was resolved nonviolently when the protesters agreed to leave the bridge.

Officials gave the following account earlier this year:

The incident began the afternoon of Jan. 27 when officers in two cars tried to stop a Chevy Impala for a traffic violation. The driver fled and crashed on a curb by St. Andrew A.M.E. Church at 867 South Parkway. Two men in the car ran in separate directions and police chased on foot. Officials have said Bratcher fired at them, and that officers shot him.

Bratcher collapsed and died behind a church building. A witness named Anthony Merritt took a cellphone video immediately after the shooting. It shows Bratcher lying motionless on the ground. A police officer appears to use a long gun to brush away a handgun lying near the body.

Bratcher had served time in federal prison for a shooting incident and was facing a possible return to prison for violating terms of his supervised release.

Family members have raised doubts about the official account, saying Bratcher was handcuffed at the time of the shooting. More than 100 people attended a candlelight vigil in his memory shortly after the shooting, including his son, then six years old.

Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich requested the TBI conduct the investigation into his death. The TBI presented the case June 29 to the DA's office, which ruled that no charges would be filed against the officers and no indictments would be requested.

Shooting of Jonathon Bratcher

Under the Tennessee code, TBI investigative records are confidential unless disclosure is ordered by a court or for compliance with a subpoena. Weirich requested the file's release to the judge Friday, saying it would be in the interest of public awareness and public safety. The TBI joined the request for the release.

At an Official Black Lives Matter Memphis Chapter protest in July held on South Parkway East near Mississippi Boulevard and close to the site of the shooting, Bratcher’s brother, William Green, 41, said officers are not punished for shootings, so “why would they stop?”

This is the second file the DA's office requested for release. Previously, the redacted file of the shooting of Darrius Stewart by Memphis police Officer Connor Schilling was released to the public after court order.

In arguing for the file's release, Weirich said "it is easy to claim that today officer involved shootings ring a different bell than they did five years ago," she said, and that "the community not only here in Shelby County but throughout the state and throughout this nation is very much watching what goes on within police departments, what goes on within prosecutors' offices, and we want that eye on us."

She said that "to make sure the conversation is complete" and that the information is available for the public to read, peruse, debate and question, "it is imperative that the entire file be made known to the public."

Jenkins said no parties objected to the release. He granted the petition and requested that the "appropriate personal information" and names to be redacted.

"We applaud your willingness to be open to the public to shed light on how you go about making the determinations and decisions that you make relative to these types of matters which does raise great concern in our community and indeed throughout the United States," he said.

Weirich said the file includes a letter from her office to Memphis police Director Michael Rallings explaining the facts of the case and the reason there was "no way our office could charge these officers."

Letter

The DA's office decided that there was "no prosecutable crime in the killing of Jonathon Bratcher," she said. "That these officers were acting in defense of themselves, in defense of others and trying to apprehend a fleeing felon."

Weirich's office said the file will be available at scdag.com.