By Hank Dudding
Memphis Commercial Appeal
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Memphis police officer has been cleared to return to duty after a fatal shooting near Memphis International Airport last week.
The Shelby County Attorney General’s Office ruled today there will be no criminal prosecution against officer Gerry Hampton based on facts to date, MPD spokeswoman Monique Martin wrote in an e-mail.
“The facts presented thus far suggest there is not sufficient evidence to overcome the inference of self-defense,” Martin wrote. “The internal investigation has not yet been completed and upon completion of the internal investigation the case will be forwarded to the grand jury section of the Shelby County AG for the final disposition.”
Hampton, 41, shot and killed Reginald Pointer, 24, about 1 a.m. Oct. 21 after a foot chase that started in the FedEx parking lot on Tchulahoma.
Pointer resisted the officer’s attempts to place him under arrest, police said, and was shot during a struggle.
Pointer was unarmed, wrote Martin.
Officers found a screwdriver at the scene.
Hampton, a 10-year MPD veteran, is assigned to the uniform patrol division at the Mt. Moriah Station.
According to department policy, deadly force can be used only “in self-defense or defense of others where either the officer or a third party has been attacked or threatened with deadly force, (or is) in danger of serious bodily injury or death,” Martin wrote last week.
The shooting followed a pursuit that began about 1 a.m. when a FedEx security guard tried to detain a man who seemed to be prowling around cars at the company’s facility on Tchulahoma.
The guard chased the man up the street, where police officers who were working an undercover detail joined in the pursuit.
The chase led to Tchulahoma’s intersection with Democrat, where officers caught up with Pointer.
The undercover operation that brought officers to the area was intended to quell an increase in thefts from motor vehicles, police said.
Pointer had a handful of arrests in his past, including a conviction for attempted burglary of a motor vehicle in 2004.
Copyright 2008 Memphis Commercial Appeal