Evidence Photos for Office of District Attorney General; News Clippings; Garner Homicide Analysis Sheet

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MEMPHIS POLICE DEPARTMENT 

EVIDENCE FOR OFFICE OP DISTRICT ATTORNEY GENERAL

DATE: 1 0 /1 1 /7 4 19

____________CASE OF_____________ ITEMS SENT FILE NO.

1,
££iax=Ss=&x=S7Ban, 1
EDWARD EUGENE GARNER

4-10-04-0610.
74-10-04-0570.

121/4153’

?. one newspaper d.lpplng

One Preliminary Rqort

4 ,

24 Scene Photographs 

Victim's Juvneile Reocrd

5.
One Anti-Gdme Unit report

List of Unsolved House Burglaries 
occurring in the area of the shooting 
71 TTn»snl-w.aH TlTiTgl p ,

7.
List of Unsolved Business Burglaries 
occurlne in area of shooting.
48 Unvolved Burglaries.

One Burglary Report, 74-1 0-04-0^7 f)._______

9 .

Justifiable HOomlcide Report, 74-10-04-06 10.

10.

Additional Information Report, 74-10«04*0 

HHg Supplements (21__________________________

570.

11.
Crime Scene Reports, (4)

1?

Statements) (4)

1 3 . 1

14.

F-tlOO.I

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Office of the District Attorney General 

Date:___________ ^  ^  -----
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MEMPHIS PRESS-SCIMITAR, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1974

Researchers Say Crowing Practice May be Unconstitutional

Study Criticizes the Use by Police of Hollow-Point Bullets
» _ Un-i.. tiimnct oiiarnntpp rnmp iin with a comDromise that the departm

BOCTON. —(UPI)—Police 
departments nationwide 
apparently are following “a 
definite trend” towards the 
use of high-velocity bullets 
which cause “extensive in­
jury,” according to a report 
released here.

Six of 18 cities surveyed 
nationwide were using hol­
low-point bullets which are 
banned in warfare by inter- 
aational law, according to 
t h e report issued by the 
Massachusetts Research 
Center.

“A definite trend towards 
more powerful bullets and 
weapons capable of shooting 
higher velocity bullets was 
apparent,” the report stated.

The center’s survey and 
study was prompted by a re­
cent controversy in Connect­
icut where the state police 
a r e  using 3 5 7 magnum, 
hollow-point ammunition. 
Massachusetts state police 
are using .38 caliber, hollow- 
point bullets.

The center said 20 per cent 
of the communities respond­
ing to a survey in Massa­
chusetts are using hollow- 
p(int bullets.

The center report also said 
use of the bullets may be 
unconstitutional—because of 
possible lack of due regard 
for life.

Researchers were critical 
of the defense given by Con­
necticut officials for the use 
of hollow-point bullets, who 
said state police used their 
guns only to kill.

“Shooting to kill is tan­
tamount to summary execu­
tion which has long been 
recognized as a war crime,” 
the report stated.

The study included actual 
test firings of various types 
of ammunition into 60-pound 
blocks of soap which have 
approximately t h e  same 
specific gravity as human 
tissue.

Citing published works on 
ballistics and its own tests, 
t h e center report stated, 
“High-velocity bullets, have 
been found not only to leave 
a permanent track in the 
body, but also cause the 
formation of a temporary 
cavity as they pass through.

“This cavitational effect

has been likened to an inter­
nal explosion.”

The center concluded the 
h i g h e r  powered bullets 
“clearly h a v e  a greater 
wounding capacity.”

In addition to the wound­
ing effects of higher veloci­
ties, the study found hollow- 
point bullets “mushroom on 
impact and can therefore 
cause more damage.”

T h e  center study said 
hollow-point, high-velocity 
bullets tend to expend most, 
if not all, their energy within 
the human body, thus in­
creasing the wound area.

Concluding the section on 
hollow-point bullets and cit­
ing studies of their wounding 
effects, the center states, 
“The energies calculated 
above . . .  if expended total­
ly or largely anywhere with­
in the trunk of a human

body, can almost guarantee 
deaA.”

The center also concluded
police may have confused 
the need for “stopping” ver­
sus “stopping power.”

The center said ammuni­
tion h a s  been developed 
which has greater stopping 
power than the traditional 38 
caliber police bullets b u t  
which will not cause the 
extensive injury of hollow 
points.

The center said it was un­
able to find any evidence to 
back up other claims of po­
lice officials that hollow- 
point ammunition has a less­
er tendency to ricochet.

Police Now Use 
Faster Bullet

Memphis police h a v e

come up with a compromise 
solution on the question of 
higher velocity bullets and 
more powerful guns.

In Memphis late last year 
the decision was made to 
switch from a standard ve­
locity 110-grain bullet in the 
standard .38 cal. pistol to a 
125-grain bullet with higher 
velocity. The standard .38 
caliber pistol was kept in 
service.

Thus Memphis police are 
now shooting a hollow point 
bullet which is heavier and 
travels faster, but their pis­
tols still do not match the 
.357 magnum, known as one 
of the most powerful pistols 
obtainable.

The switch to the heavier, 
faster bullet in Memphis 
came after t h e  Memphis 
Police Association, the new 
police union, made demands

that the department switch i 
to the .357 magnum or an 
even more powerful pistol, 
the .41 magnum.

T h e  reason behind the 
push for a more powerful 
weapon was the death of po­
lice officer David Clark in a 
shootout with a mass killer 
on Kansas Street.

Several bullets f r o m  
Clark’s pistol, loaded with 
the slower speed, lighter bul­
let, struck the suspect but 
failed to stop him before he 
s h o t  Clark with a high- 
powered rifle.

Fellow police officers felt

that Clark’s life could have 
been saved if he had been

PAGE 3

armed with a more powerful 
weapon.



15-Year-old' slain...

Wave of police 
Killings increase

By MIKE HONEY
A grow ing w ave of police  

shootings of Memphis Black youtl, 
took the life of 15-year old Edward 
Eugene Gamer last week.

Garner, of 928 Tully, was shot 
once in the back of the head by 
patrolman E.R. Hymon.

Garner was said to unarmed, 
and trapped in an enclosed small 
back yard by police.

Police said the shooting was 
justifiable, but the killing stirred 

yripples of anger throughout the 
Memphis community.

Gamer was shot behind the home 
of Louvenia Anderson, 739 Vollin- 
tine.

‘T r i - S t a t e rw o -  j  -

MR. GARNER
vestigation of the scene showed that 
officer Hymon must have been 
within about 15 feet of young Gar­
ner.

Garner was shot either heading 
for a six-foot fence, or trying to 
climb it. The youth was about five 
feet tall, and weighed no more thar 
105 pounds. It was apparent that he 
would have had a very difficult 
time scaling the wire fence.

Verline Mayo, of the American 
Tenants Union, made an in ­
vestigation of the scene of thd 
shooting with a number of other 
community members, and they say 
it is apparent the officer could 
ea.sily have grabbed young Garnu, 
who was trapped in a small back 
yard with no where to go bui 
toward the fence;. Our investigation 
drew the same conclusion.

No one seems to know who callee 
the police to the scene. Ms. Ander 
son said she did not know anything 
about the incident until she arriveo 
home to find her house occupied by 
police. They occupied the house for 
about an hour and a half, and would 
not let her enter, she said. She 
found little evidence of a burglary, 
hut said some rings and two five 
dollar bills turned up missing. A 
watch that the Memphis papers 
said was missing had not been 
stolen, she said, and is in her 
possession.

Mrs. Anderson said she was ex­
tremely upset with the callous at­
titude of the police. According to 
her, the police left remnants of 
brain matter apd biood in the back 
yard.



ĉpp*A

Report Claims 
' Fatal Shooting 

Was Justified
By WILLIAM C. BAYNE

Police yesterday said the fatal shoot­
ing of a I5-year-old boy by an officer 
Thursday night was “apparently justi­
fied” after a preliminary investigation 
Into the shooting.

George W. Hutchinson, deputy chief 
for operations who ordered the investi­
gation, said the slain youth, Edward 
Eugene Gamer of 928 Tully, was seen 
leaving a house at 739 Vollintine he had 
burglarized and ignored an officer’s 
command to halt.

“There was hard physical evidence 
inside the house that indicated Gamer 
had been in the house,” Hutchinson 
said, “as well as the fact that some 
items taken from the house in the bur­
glary were found in his possession 
after the shooting.”

Hutchinson said the shooting “deeply 
disturbs me. It’s an unfortunate thing 
. . .” But he said the neighborhood 
had been plagued with crime recently.

He said from July 1 until Sept. 30 the
area (bounded on the north by Fire­
stone Boulevard, Breedlove on the 
east. Seventh on the west and Looney 
on the south) “has had 71 unsolved 
burglaries from houses, 49 burglaries 
from businesses and numerous auto 
thefts, larcenies and thefts from auto­
mobiles.”

He said the area has also been desig­
nated a major distribution and use cen­

ter in the city’s drug traffic.
Capt. Tommy Smith, homicide com­

mander who headed the investigation, 
said a neighbor cf Mr. and Mrs. Le- 
delle Anderson, who live at 739 Vollin­
tine, called police about 11:10 p.m. 
Thursday to report a burglary in 
progress.

“The complainant said he had seen a 
man walking around on the porch and 
then walk toward the rear of the house. 
He later heard glass breaking and saw 
a light come on in the house,” Smith 
said.

n

I
Bill 
in i 
will 
Me 
by

I

He said the complainant “knew that
the occupants (the Andersens) were 
away from the house.”

Patrolmen L. B. Wright and E. R. 
Hymon met the complainant in the 
street in front of the house, and while 
Wright called in to headquarters on his 
radio, Hymon ran to the rear of the 
house at 737 Vollintine (next door). 
Smith said.

“He saw Garner leaving the house 
I through the back door and yelled for 
! him to halt,” Smith said. He said 
j neighbors also told police that they had 

heard the command.
I “Garner ran toward a six-foot high 
I chain-link fence, away from the officer 
■ and attempted to escape,” Smith said.I He said Hymon fired one shot, fatally 
wounding Garner.

Hutchinson said police “had han­
dled” Garner several times in the past 
— “since he was 12 years old.”

He said the youth had been convicted
twice on burglary charges — in 1971 
and earlier this year — both times in 
the same neighborhood and added that 
the youth “was currently on probation 
from the state Corrections Department 
on a burglary charge.”

Hutchinson said “as far as I’m con­
cerned, the correct procedures were 
handled in this case.” He said the case 
would be presented to the Shelby Coun­
ty Grand Jury when the investigation 
is completed.

Hymon was relieved of duty with pay 
pending the investigation.

The death of Gamer, the fifth person 
killed by police this year, was investi­
gated Thursday night by John Carlisle, 
chief investigator for the Shelby Coun­
ty Attorney General’s office.

Smith said Carlisle “has made the 
scene and participated in the last three 
incidents of this type we’ve had. He’s 
heard us interview witnesses, seen us 
collect notes and taken down his own 
information from the scene.”

Hutchinson and Smith declined to say
what the “hard physical evidence” was 
inside the house or what items were 
found on Garner from the house, al­
though other police sources said Gar­
ner had a wallet from the house.

Police said the death was apparently 
justifiable, however, based on the evi­
dence collected. The investigation is 
continuing.

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M O M ian i-  lU 'IU -AU /M KM P IIlS  P O U C I* OHPT. 
HOMICIDE ANALYSIS SHEET

DIST H1C  T

129
M a i  NOMCIL M

7A1004-0610
H O M I C I O C  N U M H E R

121/A153
V I C T I M S  N A M E

EDWARD EUGENE GARNER
SE X

M
R A C E

B
A G E

15
D OK  1 N U M U E R

none
[ 1 F E L O N Y  

( ̂ 1 M I N O R

[ 1 C O N N E C T E D  

[ ̂ j N O T  C O N N E C  T E D

V I C T I M S  A D D R E S S

9X8 Tully
C O R P U S  D E L I C T I  W IT N E S S

Curtis Garner
RE L A  T i O N S H I P

h r n r h e
D A T E  O F  O C C U R E N C E

10/3/74
T I M E  l O A Y  O F  W E E K

11:Ofpm, Fr
T IM E  P R O N O U N C E D  B Y :

1, 0020, Dr. Morgan,
D A T E  O F  D E A T H

l0/‘«/74, J
P R O N O U N C E D  A T :

GH, ER.
A D D R E S S  OF  O C C U R E N C E

739 Vollentine
T Y P E  O F  L O C A T I O N

residence
D A T E  RE P O R  T E D

10/4/74 ,
T IM E W E A P O N  U S E D  ( S P E C I F Y  T Y P E )

.38 caliber revolver
R E C O V E R E D  

^ y j ^ E S  . . .  NO

YFW
O F F E N D E R S  N A M E

Ptlm. Elton Richard Hvman
SEX

M
R A C E

B 2

A G E

5
a  O F  1 N U M B E R (71 f e l o n y  

I"] M I N O R

L
1
■ I c o n n e c t e d  

J ] N O T  c o n n e c t e d

O F F E N D E R S  N A M E SE X R A C E A G E B O F  1 N U M B E R L _ ]  F E L O N Y  

r J M I N O R

1 C O N N E C T E D  

[ 7  i N O T  c o n n e c t e d

O F F E N D E R S  N A M E SE X R A C E A G E 8  O F  1 N U M B E R m F E L O N Y  

□  M I N O R

[■ J c o n n e c t e d

f ~ ‘ | N O T  c o n n e c t e d

O F F E N D E R S  N A M E SE X R A C E A G E B O F  1 N U M B E R [ _  1 F E L O N Y  

[2\ M I N O R

l7] c o n n e c t e d

□j N O T  C O N N E C T E D

O F F E N D E R  A T  S C E N E

[J; NO‘Yif^
O F F E N D E R  V
I D E N T I F I E D  X-£*b
I M M E D I A T E L Y  L i
I F  N O T  A T  S C E N E

A D M IS S IO N ( _ j O R A L  

'■ W R I T T E N

O F F t N O E R  N O T  
t a k e n  i n t o
C U S T O D Y  ^

I N T O X I C A N T S  I N V O L V E D

: 7 i Y E s  f

[ - 1  V I C T I M

O F F E N D E R  [ I YE S 
I D E N T I F I E D  
T H R O U G H  r ~ ]  NO 
I N V E S T I G A T I O N

O F F E N D E R  1 Y E S  
t a k e n  i n t o  'n  nokb

O F F E N D E R
S U R R E N O E R E O

S 1 NO
J U S T I F I A B L E D E A T H  O F  

O F F E N D E R□
A R R E S T E D  B Y :

Q 1  O U T  O F  TO W N  O  F . 8 . 1 .  Q ]  U N I F O R M  [ j D E T E C T I V E  
J U R I S D I C T I O N  P A T R O L  *  D I V I S I O N

O F F E N D E R  A R R E S T E D  B Y :

No Arrest Made.
E .R.Hyman,3441, .aZ>. * 8   ̂9273 «________ i . s .m

S C E N E  P R O C E S S E D  

[ Y E ^  ! ' ) n o

P H O T O G R A P H S  B Y :

Montgomery , gPTnp
R E L A T I O N S H I P  • V I C T I M /  O F F E N D E R  

'  I F R I E N D S  N O W ' S

N E I G H B O R S

_ " J  a c q u a i n t a n c e s

[ j O T H E R  
( S P E C I F Y )

Q  G E N E R A L  D O M E S T I C  Q S E X  Q  P O L I T I C S

□  m o n e y  □ g a m b l i n g  □ c h i l d r e n

□  l i q u o r  □ t r i a n g l e  Q J  T R A F F I C Burglary
G A N G L A N D  T Y P E

i ^ j O R C A N I Z E O  I f )  C R I M E  O F  V I C T I M

R O B B E R Y  

[ J i  A R M E D

"rs?iB'eN<!e
S T R O N G  AR M

j j j  R O B B E R  □ g a m b l e r  | | P R O S T I T U T E  

j J ]  B U R G L A R  □  N A R C O T I C S  Q  O T H E R

B U R G L A R Y ^ j  P E R V E R S I O NJ . s e x
1 - □  A S S A U L T  

O F  WOM EN

T  i u n l a w f u l  USE [ M o t h e r
O F  W E A P O N  ( S P E C l

□  U N D E T E R M I N E D

one brown plastic wallet, victim’s clothing and papers, one snent
caluber hull, two $5. bills, one Hoe, and one blatr^^a'ir^^^^^ E V I D E N C E  T O  F . B . I .

□  yes : NO)
c i t y  c o u r t D I S P O S I T I O N

G E N E R A L  S ES SI O NS C O U R T W A R R A N T  N U M B E R D I S P O S I T I O N

G R A N D  J U R Y D I S P O S I T I O N

C R I M I N A L  C O U R T D I S P O S I T I O N

W I T N E S S E S

Ptlm. E. R. HyAan, Ptlm. L. B. Wright, Ruth Ann Haywood. Daisev Bell Starts

B R I E F  A C C O U N T  O F  F A C T S :

Edward Eugene Garner, M / B ,  1 5 ,  was fatally shot by Ptlm. E .  R .  H y m a n ,  nn i r ) / - < / 7
at 11:01pm, after Ptlm. Hymon observed Garner run from the back door of the 
house at 739 Vollentln. Garner had burglarized the house, an d  w ag fTee-tnt> rhe 
scene of the crime, when he was shot. Ptlm. Hyman and his partners had 
received a call to the Scene of the Burglary from Dalsey Statts. Ruth Ann
Haywood, k'/a, nad observed the M/B prowling around her neighbors house and
heard the glass break In the rear of the house*

HE P O R T I N G  O F F I C E R

Sgt. F. J. Wheeler, 9141.
. • .J. T" 'I- ■ ■‘"I’T-:

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