Evidence photos show shell casings and bullet holes from the scene where Memphis police officers fired 22 shots at Steven Askew who was seated in this vehicle. The officers' description of what happened that night has changed. (Source: MPD)

By Maria Ines Zamudio of The Commercial Appeal

Three years ago, a pair of Memphis Police Department officers responded to a loud music complaint around 9:30 p.m. inside an apartment complex in East Memphis. The two officers never found the source of the music but the call turned deadly for Steven Askew, a 24-year-old man who was parked outside his girlfriend's apartment.

The uniformed officers shot at Askew 22 times, striking him nine times. He was pronounced dead at the scene, having been shot six times in the back, once in the neck and twice in the arms.

An officer who responded to the shots fired call arrived at the crime scene within minutes and was told by the two officers already on the scene that Askew had fired multiple shots at them, so they returned fire, killing him.

But, according to an examination of public records by The Commercial Appeal, no shell casings were found in or around Askew's car and no usable prints on the gun.

Four days after the shooting, when the two officers -- Matthew Dyess and Ned Aufdenkamp -- gave their official statements to investigators, their story had changed dramatically, the newspaper found.

Their original statement, documented as part of the initial police report, was never part of the official investigation. The officers' first statement was not made public until last year when Askew's family attorneys forced the city to disclose it as part of an ongoing federal lawsuit. The night of the shooting, officers said Askew shot at them and later the officers said he only pointed the gun. But even the statement made to investigators has inconsistencies.

The Memphis Police Department's investigation ultimately cleared the two officers; the shooting was ruled justifiable — one of 22 such outcomes from internal police investigations from 2009 to the end of last year.

But the officers' inconsistent statements, and the absence of key physical evidence, including fingerprints on Askew's Cobra 380 handgun raise questions about the Memphis Police Department's investigation of this fatal shooting, said Philip Stinson, a former police officer in Dover, New Hampshire, who now works as a researcher at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

"I think it was premature," said Stinson, a lawyer who studies fatal police shootings. "There was not sufficient evidence to do that (rule the shooting justifiable) because there were a number of questions unanswered that needed to be addressed prior to making that conclusion."

Officer Dyess told Christy Drew, the officer who responded to the shooting, that Askew "pulled out a handgun and fired rounds" at the officers, according to the aggravated assault report filed against Askew following the fatal shooting on Jan. 17, 2013. That report was taken at least 20 minutes after the shooting. By contrast, the internal investigation names Officer J. Roney as the first officer to arrive at the crime scene.

By the time the officers gave their official statements — on Jan. 21, 2013 — they had changed their story. Cellphone records show the officers called each other numerous times between the night of the shooting and the day they made that official statement, said Jeffrey Rosenblum, the lawyer representing Askew's family in its lawsuit seeking $3 million. Askew, 24, was studying to become an airplane mechanic. He was enrolled at Tennessee Technology Center. He did not have a criminal record. Autopsy results show that he was legally drunk at the time.

"I kept telling him to put his hands up. We got on the radio requested more cars saying we had one being uncooperative with a gun continued to give verbal commands. At that point he grabbed the gun with his left hand started to turn toward me, smiled, and pointed the gun right at my face and that point I fired upon him and my partner started firing. I backed up to the back of the car took cover," Aufdenkamp told detectives during his official interview.

Dyess told detectives, "I saw his arm extend straight out and toward my partner on the passenger side of the car and I saw the muzzle of the gun protrude from his hand. I saw him punch out on target, and at the time my partner and I open fire."

IAB files only show one version of what happened that night and are solely based on the officer's revised statements. But the newspaper found inconsistencies even in this version of the officers' accounts. Dyess said Askew pointed the gun using his right hand. Photos from the crime scene show Askew was holding a cigar in his right hand. Aufdenkamp told detectives Askew pointed the gun using his left hand. Askew's family said he was right-handed.

The night of Jan. 17, 2013, Askew was sitting in his car at Windsor Place Apartments waiting for his girlfriend. As he waited, he fell asleep. Officers Dyess and Aufdenkamp responded to loud music disturbance call at 3193 Tyrol Court but when the officers could not find the source of the noise they drove to 3197 Royal Knight, where Askew was parked. Aufdenkamp called dispatch and says, "We're trying to check one, he's got a gun, start another car over here please."

Twenty-four seconds later, a radio transmission says, "shots fired, shots fired."

Five months later, Assistant District Attorney General Johnny McFarland declined to present the case to a grand jury.

"There is insufficient evidence of a criminal offense by officers Aufdenkamp and Dyess, involved to create reasonable chance for chance for a conviction, when considered with the most plausible, reasonably foreseeable defense that could be raised under the evidence," McFarland wrote in a letter to MPD May 13, 2013.

McFarland declined to comment about the case, and the second conflicting statement, saying he'd need to review the file.

A spokesman for MPD declined to comment citing the ongoing lawsuit.

Deborah E. Godwin, attorney representing both officers, also declined to comment citing the ongoing lawsuit.

The Askew family's lawyers don't believe he pointed the gun at the officers. According to documents, the gun was found on the driver's side floorboard underneath the steering wheel. No prints were recovered from the handgun that could be used to ID who used the gun, according to documents. Askew had a permit for the Cobra 380 handgun.

Stinson, the Bowling Green researcher and police shootings expert, said investigators should have followed up and tried to answer why there were no valuable prints available in the recovered gun.

"That raises questions," he said. "There are a lot of questions that were left open when that finding was made that it was justified."

Aufdenkamp is no stranger to altercations with the public and other officers. He was accused of using excessive force in 2012. The charge was dismissed by the same department that investigated the fatal shooting. In that complaint, he was accused of following a man on Beale Street to the middle of Fourth Street, where he grabbed the man from behind and took him to the pavement, causing injuries. Aufdenkamp also received a one-day suspension following a verbal argument in 2012 with another police officer, according to his personnel files.

Dyess received a written reprimand for "careless handling of firearms" a year after the fatal shooting. On March 11, 2014, Dyess asked for permission to discharge his gun after a training class. He unloaded one of the magazines and at some point, he placed a fully loaded magazine into the handgun and when the slide went forward, a round fired into the clearing barrel. No one was injured, according to documents in his personnel file.

Neither officer was reprimanded for the shooting. Both still work for the police department, earning $53,573 annually.