Fifty-One Years Ago Memphis, Tennessee Police Shot Fleeing Felon Eddie Garner

Fifty-One Years Ago Memphis, Tennessee Police Shot Fleeing Felon Eddie Garner

On the night of October 3, 1974, Memphis Police Officers Elton Hymon and Leslie Wright were dispatched to a call of a “prowler inside.” When they arrived, a woman on her porch pointed them toward the house next door. Moments later, Officer Hymon encountered Eddie Garner, who bolted out the back door of 739 T.M. Henderson Avenue. Hymon fired his weapon, fatally striking Garner. The house is gone now, but the case that followed reshaped American policing forever.

The Garner family sued, and more than a decade later the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985), striking down the long-standing rule that allowed officers to shoot fleeing felons. That decision set new boundaries for the use of deadly force.

Fast forward to this year: on May 15, 2025, the Supreme Court handed down Barnes v. Felix (No. 23-1239), the latest word on law enforcement’s use of deadly force. Just as in 1985, the Court’s decision reminds us that every encounter we face carries both life-and-death consequences and constitutional scrutiny.

To learn more about Barnes v. Felix see

https://www.objectivelyreasonable.com/2025/05/19/when-does-a-use-of-force-analysis-begin/

• Robert Meader