By J. Holly McCall | Editor-in-Chief
Good morning, Lookout readers:
National media has focused over the last few months on shootings by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and it’s absolutely worthwhile that they do so: Indeed, we have a story today about the 22 shootings by ICE agents in President Donald Trump’s second term in office.
But flying below the national radar continues to be action by the Memphis Safe Task Force.
Since the task force was deployed in Tennessee’s largest city — and the largest majority minority city in the nation — agents with the alphabet soup of federal and state agencies have been responsible for eight use-of force incidents.
As Senior Reporter Anita Wadhwani reports, seven of those incidents have been shootings. Four of those have been fatal and have occurred in just the last two months.
The task force, deployed by President Donald Trump with the approval of Gov. Bill Lee, now has 2,700 personnel in Memphis, including over 1,400 members of the Tennessee National Guard.
In other news:
Ad watch: State Rep. Monty Fritts, a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor, has released his first ad in the campaign, a six minute and 19 second video in which he wields a rifle and chain saw, spars in a boxing ring, sits on a porch wearing a U.S. Army 1st Cavalry Stetson hat and talks about levying capital punishment on anyone who seeks hormone therapy for minors.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson, a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the new 9th Congressional District, kicked off the first day of early voting on Friday at a rally with some big names in national Democratic circles. U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Summer Lee of Pennsylvania joined Pearson in Memphis, speaking at, among other locations, the site of the controversial Elon Musk xAI Colossus data center.
THE LOOKOUT’S TOP STORY
MEMPHIS, TN – July 16, 2026: Melvin Pigram, Darrin Pigram’s younger brother, at Darrin’s memorial near the Burger King where he was killed by a member of the Memphis Safe Taskforce. The May 13 fatal shooting of Darrin Pigram, 44, was by a Drug Enforcement Agency officer assigned to the task force. (Photo: Brad Vest for Tennessee Lookout)
by Anita Wadhwani
The family of a man killed by an officer with the Memphis Safe Task Force is calling for a swift and public accounting of the May 13 shooting. Darrin Pigram, 41, was working the breakfast shift at a Burger King when he was shot and killed at about 9:30 a.m. by a Drug Enforcement Administration officer serving a warrant, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
NEWS AND NOTES
DHS boss Mullin warns of possible prosecution for election officials over voter roll access | Sam Gauntt, States Newsroom
Tenn. agriculture commissioner accused of pressuring Farm Bureau to back Marsha Blackburn for governor | Phil Williams, Nashville NewsChannel5
FEATURED IN THE LOOKOUT
People gather near the scene of 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti on Jan. 24, 2026, the third shooting in as many weeks. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
by Ariana Figueroa
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on July 13 killed 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national with legal work authorization, in Maine, making him the 22nd person shot at by federal immigration officers during President Donald Trump’s second term.
ICYMI
Tennessee District 5 candidates vie for constituents spread across the state’s extremes | Cassandra Stephenson
EPA Administrator calls statewide data center moratorium a ‘cop out’| Cassandra Stephenson
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