Suspects ID’d after police shooting; 1 dead, other was city employee

UPDATE: The subject who died in this police shooting was identified by the TBI as Tremayne D. French, 26.

Records show French pleaded guilty to carjacking in 2019. He also pleaded guilty in a 2018 robbery and was sentenced to six years.

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The man arrested after a carjacking and police shooting that ended in another suspect’s death Monday was a part-time City of Memphis employee, officials said.

Tadarius Nichols, 25, is in the Shelby County Jail log, charged with motor vehicle theft and evading arrest in the incident that ended with a fatal shooting by police near a school in Frayser .

“We can confirm that at the time of the incident he was a part-time employee in our Parks division,” a city spokesperson said Tuesday in an email. They had no further comment.

A court affidavit states that Nichols was the driver of the stolen Dodge Charger that stopped near Cornerstone Academy on Overton Crossing on Monday afternoon. Nichols denied to police that he was involved in the earlier carjacking.

Police say it started in Raleigh just after midnight Monday morning when a white Dodge Charger was taken in a carjacking from the 4100 block of Ann Arbor Lane.

At 2 p.m. officers spotted the carjacked vehicle near Watkins Street and Dellwood, with two males inside. They say they attempted a traffic stop, but the driver refused to stop.

The Charger stopped at Frayser Boulevard and Adair Drive, where the suspects got out and ran east on Frayser Boulevard.

As officers pursued them on foot, they say one of the suspects fired shots at officers. Officers returned fire, striking the suspect. The man was pronounced dead on the scene, and a weapon was found nearby.

Records do not list the name of the suspect who was killed. TBI said they will release his name once they notify family.

Nichols’ grandmother, Mattie Kelly, said she raised Nichols and has never known him to be in trouble.

“If Tadarius knew that car was stolen or carjacked, he would’ve never got in that car,” Kelly said. “He probably was scared and he probably ran, but he did stop.”

She said her grandson has a job and was working, and described him as very quiet.

“Sometimes you get involved with the wrong people,” she said.

We checked and did not find other listed arrests for Nichols as an adult in Shelby County.

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