TBI: Off-duty MPD officer kills man
Shooting occurred in child custody exchange
An off-duty Memphis police officer shot and killed a man late Sunday night during a child custody exchange outside an East Memphis gas station.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Susan Niland identified the dead man as Luis Felipe Soto, 29. Memphis police will not release the officer’s name until he has been debriefed.
According to Niland, the shooting happened around 10 p.m. at the Shell gas station at 1781 Getwell Road. She said the officer was there to witness a child visitation exchange between a woman and her ex-husband, Soto.
“There was an altercation during that exchange that resulted in the offduty officer firing at Soto, striking him. Soto died of his injuries,” Niland said in an email Monday morning.
TBI spokesman Josh DeVine later clarified that the woman and the officer were engaged.
Agents recovered a weapon near Soto’s body as well as the officer’s weapon, DeVine said. It’s uncertain if the gun was Soto’s, or if he had a permit to carry it. Soto has no serious criminal record here, and family members said Monday evening that he and his exwife were getting along as far as they knew.
DeVine also said that Soto’s 4-year-old daughter was present, but she may not have seen the shooting. He added that agents are working to determine if any similar custody exchanges have occurred in the past involving the officer, the mother and Soto.
“Was that the location where the handoff occurred in the past? That’s something our folks are working to determine at this point as we work to understand the history of the relationship of all the parties involved,” DeVine said.
Speaking from their southeast Memphis home Monday afternoon, Soto’s family called the exchange unusual, saying the mother would usually come to their home on Harville — less than a mile from where the shooting happened — to pick up the girl. Instead, after leaving the daughter with her father for a week, the mother was supposed to pick her up Monday, said Sandy Soto, Luis’ sister. The mother called Sunday night, however, and asked to meet at the gas station, the family said.
“That’s what we don’t understand. It’s weird. That never happens. She always comes and picks my niece up here,” Sandy Soto said.
Added another sister, Julia Soto: “Why did she meet him over there? Why did she take the boyfriend with her?”
DeVine added that he could not speak to whether Memphis police have a policy regarding custody exchanges.
“That is a question for Memphis police. What we are doing is investigating to see if the exchange was a pattern, whether it was a habit. That is something we are working to determine right now.”
In a recent story about online transactions occurring in precinct parking lots, MPD Col. James Kirkwood said that precincts are also used for custody exchanges.
Niland said TBI agents, the forensic team and the Violent Crimes Response Team collected evidence and processed the scene, clearing it at 3:15 a.m.
At the request of Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich and other local authorities, the TBI investigates all officer-involved shootings in Memphis and Shelby County.
Soto’s sisters said he and his ex-wife dated for a few years, were married about a year and divorced in 2014. Soto, who lived at the Harville home with his parents, had visitation rights every other weekend. Soto worked in construction, they said, and has another child who lives in Mexico.
This is the second officer-involved shooting in recent weeks. On March 23, officer Leon Dickson shot and killed Alexio Allen, 30, at a Raleigh home after Allen allegedly scuffled over a weapon.
Dickson was also the officer who shot and killed George Golden, 42, after a scuffle in the parking lot of the Raleigh Walmart at 3950 Austin Peay Highway on March 27, 2013.
This is also the third TBI investigation underway regarding Memphis police officers; TBI still hasn’t closed the investigation into the shooting of Johnathan Bratcher on Jan. 27.