FBI: No police wrongdoing in Memphis man’s disappearance

The FBI found no misconduct by a Walls police officer who stopped a Memphis man missing since a May 4 traffic stop on U. S. 61, the town’s attorney said Thursday.

“I’ve been told that the FBI found no wrongdoing on the part of the Walls Police Department,” attorney Billy Myers said by phone. “I am out of town, but that is what I have been told. I have not seen or heard any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of any Walls official, uniformed or otherwise.”

Deborah Madden, a spokesman for the FBI office in Jackson, could not be reached for comment.

The federal agency was asked to investigate the

I’ve been told that the FBI found no wrongdoing on the part of the Walls Police Department. ... I have not seen or heard any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of any Walls official, uniformed or oitherwise.”

Billy Myers, attiorney

disappearance of James Irby Jr. after his family raised questions. Irby has not been seen or heard from since.

Walls Police Chief Gary Boisseau would not answer the door at the Police Department on Thursday when reporters tried to question him about the FBI investigation and ask him to release the dashcam video from the traffic stop. Boisseau said earlier the video could not be released because it was part of an active investigation.

James Mathis of South- aven, an investigator with the local NAACP chapter who has been assisting Irby’s family with the case, said authorities searched the area again Thursday and found no trace of Irby.

He said the family had not heard that the FBI concluded its investigation, and that Boisseau wouldn’t talk to family members while they were at the site Thursday.

Irby was last seen the morning of May 4 in Walls on his way to a funeral in Clarksdale, Miss. According to family members and Boisseau, Irby was stopped by officer Zach Jenkins for a traffic violation and as the car was being searched, Irby fled across U. S. 61 into a field and disappeared.

Boisseau speculated that Irby slipped away and found a ride back to Memphis, but the family says it’s unlikely the 55-yearold, with prostate cancer and gout, would have been able to elude a police officer and disappear. They say it’s also unlikely he would have failed to contact family members.

Boisseau said earlier there is a court date later this month or in July on the traffic stop and that the car Irby was driving remains in the possession of authorities. Boisseau said Irby has a criminal record, but family members say he has only spent time in the Clarksdale jail for traffic violations.