NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The grandfather of a man who was shot and killed by the Tennessee National Guard in Memphis over the weekend says he wants answers from authorities.

Evaniel Johnson said he is waiting to see if video footage supports the police narrative that his 20-year-old grandson, Tyrin Johnson, turned on members of the U.S. Guard with a gun while fleeing from them early Sunday morning. Memphis police say guard members were responding to a report of shots fired.

The National Guard members had been assigned to a crime-fighting patrol in Memphis created last year by President Donald Trump, who sent federal troops and agents to Democratic-run cities he described as crime-ridden.

“Show me the video,” Evaniel Johnson told The Associated Press. “Please show me that and then I’ll be fine. Until you show me that, I’m going to fight and defend my grandson until I’m out of breath.”

Johnson, a former correctional officer with the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office in Nashville, denies that his grandson attempted to fire a gun at members of the U.S. Guard and that deadly force would be needed if he were fleeing. His grandson, he said, “wasn’t a bully.”

According to his grandfather, Tyrin Johnson was carrying a gun for protection after being “assaulted” recently in Nashville and was likely afraid of being attacked again over a murky social media dispute.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says it is reviewing the shooting and that two guard members fired their weapons. Johnson’s family says the TBI told them he was shot twice in the chest. The Memphis Police Department declined to comment on what images existed and when they would be released.

The National Guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the two members involved in the shooting had been suspended.

Tennessee Senate Democratic Leader Raumesh Akbari and Speaker London Lamar, both of Memphis, issued a joint statement expressing sympathy and emphasizing the need for transparency during the investigation. They asked TBI to release any available video as soon as possible without jeopardizing the investigation.

“Transparency serves everyone: the Johnson family, the National Guard members involved, and a community that deserves confidence in the outcome, regardless of what the facts ultimately show,” they wrote.

State Rep. Justin Pearson, a Democrat running for the U.S. House of Representatives, echoed the call for a transparent investigation and called for the federal task force to be disbanded.

“Memphis does not need armed soldiers on our streets terrorizing our people,” he said in a statement.

Trump’s decision to send Tennessee National Guard troops to Memphis to combat crime received a mixed response from residents and was the subject of a lawsuit. However, it was never the subject of widespread protests.

TBI data shows that at least three people have been killed in four shootings carried out by agents linked to the federal task force.

Tennessee’s Republican governor, Bill Lee, supported federal intervention, while Memphis’ Democratic mayor, Paul Young, took a pragmatic approach. Young said he never asked for National Guard troops, but acknowledged they would come regardless of his opinion.

Tyrin Johnson did not appear to have a criminal record other than a handful of traffic violations, according to an online review of federal and state court records and from courts in Memphis and Nashville. In May, he was arrested for failing to appear at a 2025 hearing for driving without a license in Wilson County, outside Nashville. He was released, records show.

He was enrolled at Tennessee State University from August 2023 to May 2024, according to university spokesperson Angel Higgins.

Evaniel Johnson said he expected his grandson to return to college and was training him to take on a larger role in the family’s real estate development business, including preparing a project for him to oversee in Nashville in the coming weeks.

On July 4, Evaniel Johnson said his family had gathered on his back porch in Nashville to play cards. He wished his grandson had stayed with them. Instead, Tyrin Johnson ended up in Memphis.

“I was down there like the rest of the people trying to enjoy the Fourth of July,” Johnson said. “Her future was buying houses, living life, taking care of her little baby. She had a future. She’s gone.”

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Brook reported from New Orleans.

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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.