The Memphis Police Department was involved in two incidents the weekend of Oct. 9-11 that left five people dead and two severely injured.
And a Tennessee appeals court may have set new precedent requiring that a transgender crime victim's sex assigned at birth be disclosed to a jury at trial in some cases.
Plus, a man charged with a Memphis musician's killing was convicted over the weekend.
Activists and an elected official also filed a lawsuit against the Memphis City Council over being banned from two future meetings.
Here's what else was on the docket for the week of Oct. 12, 2026.
Memphis police shoot someone, crash squad vehicle, kill five in separate incidents
MPD was recently involved in two incidents that left multiple people injured and five people dead.
In the evening hours of Oct. 9, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation
said a man was shot by MPD officers during a foot chase. MPD said its officers were on "routine patrol" and found the man "loitering."
When they approached the man, he ran away from them.
"As officers approached the male, the male fled on foot and fired several shots at officers during the foot pursuit. Two officers discharged their weapons," MPD said in a statement. "The male ran to the rear of a residence in the 2700 block of Burns Avenue, where officers located him injured by gunfire. Officers immediately rendered aid, and the male was transported to a local hospital in critical condition."
TBI is investigating the shooting, and the man was in critical condition as of Oct. 12. The man has not been identified, with TBI saying he was not named because he survived the shooting.
The shooting was the first by an MPD officer in a year, but one of many shootings by law enforcement in Memphis over the last year. Those shootings involved Memphis Safe Task Force members, and at least four of the people shot were killed.
Days later, on Oct. 11, five people were killed in a car crash involving an MPD vehicle, MPD said in a press release.
According to MPD, officers were driving to a reported shooting and were "involved in a collision with another vehicle" at the intersection of Hickory Hill and Raines roads. Four people in the other car died at the scene, and two others in the vehicle were taken to a hospital in critical condition.
At the hospital, one of those people in the other car died.
Both officers were also taken to the hospital in critical condition and later released.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol is investigating the crash.
TN court sets precedent on importance of transgender victims' sex-at-birth in self-defense cases
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals granted a Memphis man a new trial after he was convicted of manslaughter in May 2025, saying the judge who oversaw the trial was incorrect to exclude evidence that the victim was a transgender woman.
The order, written by Judge Timothy Easter and joined by Robert Wedemeyer and Matthew Wilson, was filed on Oct. 3. It is the first time a Tennessee court has ruled on the relevance of a victim’s biologically assigned sex at birth in a criminal case.
If not overturned by a higher court, the ruling would set a new precedent as to whether a victim’s biological sex at birth is relevant to a case where a defendant claims they acted in self-defense.
“The trial court determined that because the victim was armed, evidence of her biological sex was irrelevant and potentially prejudicial. We disagree,” the appeals court wrote.
After a 2022 altercation between a man, Samuel Ward Jr., and a transgender woman he was in a relationship with, Ward shot the victim multiple times. He was convicted of manslaughter by a jury.
Prior to trial, prosecutors filed a motion to exclude references to the victim’s gender identity at trial. Prosecutors said the victim was a transgender woman who had identified and presented as a woman for years, which Ward was aware of.
According to prosecutors, the victim being transgender was not relevant because Ward knew she was transgender and “would only serve to confuse the material issues presented and potentially prejudice the jury against” the victim.
Ward’s defense attorneys, however, argued the victim’s gender identity was key to establishing Ward acted in self-defense because of the “relative strength of biological males and females.” His attorneys also argued if Ward wanted to testify, he would have to lie to the jury through omission or a “straight-out lie.”
The trial court sided with the prosecution and excluded the victim's sex assigned at birth from the trial record. The appeals court disagreed.
“The question of the ‘deadliness of a firearm’ and the biological sex of a person who ‘controlled’ a firearm may not be relevant and may lack probative value in some situations,” the appeals court wrote. “In this situation, however, evidence of the biological sex of the victim was relevant and full of probative value, and its exclusion left the jury with the impression that a male defendant killed a female victim.”
Activists barred from Memphis City Council meetings sue to lift bans
A coalition of activists and an elected official have sued the Memphis City Council, the City of Memphis and Council Chairwoman Jana Swearengen-Washington. The coalition was banned from the next two Council meetings due to protests emerging following a punted vote on a data center moratorium.
Court records show the lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee on Oct. 14, and an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order was filed the same day.
The lawsuit questions the constitutionality of the Council's public comment policies, which include decorum requirements barring people from calling out Councilmembers by name. But the temporary restraining order requests a court lift the bans those activists received so they can attend the council's Oct. 20 meeting.
In addition to lifting the bans for the lawsuit's plaintiffs, they are also asking a federal judge to stop the City Council from enforcing its public comment policy, which the lawsuit calls a "speech restriction policy."
Top Commercial Appeal courts, public safety stories readers have viewed
- From Oct. 12: Man found guilty of murder in killing of Memphis musician Blake Rhea
- From Oct. 13: Memphis court case may change legal importance of if victim is transgender
- From Oct. 15: Activists barred from Memphis City Council meetings sue to lift bans
- From Oct. 12: Five people dead, three hurt after crash involving Memphis police car
- From Oct. 12: Memphis police shoot man during pursuit Friday, TBI investigating
Latest in Memphis' biggest cases
In federal court in Nashville, a judge ruled the Memphis-Shelby County Schools oversight board would be allowed to move forward with its supervision of the district.
U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw for the Middle District of Tennessee issued the decision in a court filing.
The decision comes less than a week after the board held its first meeting in months. The oversight board had been stalled out since July 1, when MSCS leaders filed a lawsuit that claimed the oversight board violated the state constitution because it invalidated voters' choice of locally elected officials.
The board was allowed to meet and establish its infrastructure, but the court was clear that the board would not be afforded any power over the school district until the board was prepared.
But in an Oct. 2 hearing held in Nashville, Crenshaw said he was ready to allow the board to meet as soon as the board indicated it was ready to do business.
During its Oct. 8 meeting, the body adopted the guidelines for an executive director position, established a list of committees and established a system for approving contracts. Orgel cited those developments as evidence the board is ready, and he filed a statement on Oct. 13.
"Accordingly, for the reasons stated on the record at the October 2, 2026 hearing, the motion to dissolve the July 1, 2026 Order (Doc. No. 32) is GRANTED," the Oct. 15 filing from the court read. "The order to maintain the status quo (Doc. No. 22) is TERMINATED."
Also over the weekend, the man charged with killing Memphis musician Blake Rhea was convicted by a Shelby County jury. Edward Wurl was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and being a felon in possession of a handgun on Nov. 7, 2024.
The jury deliberated for "just eight minutes" before returning a guilty verdict on both counts, according to the Shelby County District Attorney's office.
Rhea, a longtime Memphis bass player, was killed outside Louis Connelly's Bar for Fun Times & Friendship in November 2024. MPD said Rhea and Wurl were "involved in a verbal altercation" inside the bar before moving outside. A police affidavit said the security guard at the bar "heard several gunshots" and saw Rhea had been shot inside a car.
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Lucas Finton covers crime, policing, jails, the courts and criminal justice policy for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by phone or email: (901)208-3922 and Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com, and followed on X @LucasFinton.
Jack Armstrong covers breaking news and the environment for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at jack.armstrong@commercialappeal.com and followed on X @jca2902.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: TN sets legal precedent for transgender victims, Memphis City Council sued
