DEA agent fatally shot Darrin Pigram while serving Memphis Safe Task Force arrest warrant

On the morning of May 13, 2026, around 9:30 a.m., DEA agents with the Memphis Safe Task Force — the federal-local task force created by a September 2025 presidential directive deploying federal agents and Tennessee National Guard troops to Memphis — were serving a Shelby County arrest warrant on 41-year-old Darrin Pigram at a Burger King on North Hollywood Street near James Road in the Frayser area. As agents approached, Pigram reached for his waistband; a DEA agent fired, striking him. Pigram was transported to the hospital and later died of his injuries.

Pigram had been indicted on May 7, 2026 on charges of aggravated assault, aggravated burglary, and employing a firearm in a felony, stemming from a January 20, 2026 incident in which he allegedly held a handgun to a roommate's head after kicking down a door. Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy requested that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation review the shooting; the TBI said in a preliminary statement only that the agent fired after Pigram reached for a weapon, without confirming whether a weapon was recovered.

A later AP report identified Pigram's death as the first in a documented cluster of at least four fatal shootings connected to the Memphis Safe Task Force within roughly eight weeks, in a city where violent crime had reached a 25-year low before the deployment began and where the deployment proceeded over the objection of Memphis Mayor Paul Young.