TBI identifies driver of stolen vehicle fatally shot by Memphis police; investigation ongoing

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation released the identity of a woman who was shot and killed by Memphis police Wednesday.

The woman is identified as 25-year-old Kayla Lucas.

TBI says Wednesday’s shooting stemmed from the search for a stolen car. It all started around 2 p.m. Wednesday on South Third Street near East Brooks Road. Agents spent hours gathering evidence.

Streets were blocked from Biscayne Road to Peebles for more than five hours Wednesday. According to TBI, police came across a Ford Fusion verified stolen out of Olive Branch near the McDonald’s on Third Street.

A TBI spokesperson shared details about the preliminary investigation.

“Officers used their patrol cruisers to block the area and exited their cruisers in an attempt to apprehend the driver. Initial information from the scene shows the driver accelerated towards the officers crashing into at least one occupied patrol car resulting in another police officer firing his service weapon striking the driver,” said TBI spokesperson Keli McAlister.

TBI says none of the officers were injured. Lucas was pronounced dead at the scene.

A second adult was detained.

Memphis police and TBI have not released the name of the person detained or the officer who fired the shots.

Memphis police policy states that deadly force is prohibited “from or at any moving vehicle, except in a case where an officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect committed a violent felony and the poses a direct threat of serious bodily injury or death to other persons if not immediately apprehended.”

Police have not said yet whether or not Lucas was armed, nor whether any weapons were found in the car she was driving.

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