In the small town of Tallassee, Alabama, the life of 20-year-old Michael McIntyre, a Black male, was cut short on December 29, 2009, in a fatal encounter with a local police officer. The incident unfolded when police were reportedly serving a warrant at a friend's apartment where McIntyre was present. Though the warrant was not for him, a foot chase ensued, ending with McIntyre being shot and killed.
The official police account described a shootout, but this narrative was heavily
disputed by McIntyre's family and the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP. They asserted that McIntyre was unarmed and was shot five times in the back as he tried to flee. An investigation by the Alabama Bureau of Investigation confirmed that McIntyre sustained multiple gunshot wounds to his back and buttocks. Witnesses who spoke with the family's representatives claimed they did not see a weapon in McIntyre's possession. The family also raised concerns about the handling of the scene, alleging that they saw officers moving something from a vehicle to the location of McIntyre's body.
This was not the first time Michael McIntyre had a contentious interaction with the Tallassee Police Department. A few years prior to his death, his mother had successfully sued the city for police misconduct involving her son, resulting in a $30,000 settlement and disciplinary action against the officer involved. This history of friction between McIntyre and the local police added another layer of complexity and mistrust to the circumstances of his death.
In the aftermath of the shooting, the McIntyre family, with the support of the NAACP, called for an independent investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They also retained legal counsel to pursue a civil rights lawsuit against the city. The officer who shot McIntyre was not publicly named by the authorities. A grand jury was convened in February 2010, but it ultimately declined to indict the officer involved in the shooting. The outcome of the federal investigation and the civil rights lawsuit filed by the McIntyre family have not been widely publicized in the available online sources. Michael McIntyre was a father to two young daughters at the time of his death.
