Office George SelbyDeputy dies after Frayser shootout Drug search warrant effort ends in tragedy
By Bill Dries and Yolanda Jones dries@gomemphis.com yojones@gomemphis.com
December 5, 2002
A Shelby County sheriff's deputy serving a search warrant in Frayser was fatally shot Wednesday evening when at least one of two suspects inside a house opened fire.
George Selby, 32, with the Shelby County Narcotics Unit, was shot in the upper chest and died shortly after 8 p.m. while in surgery at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis.
Selby was wearing a protective vest but the gunshot struck him in an unprotected area near his shoulder, authorities said.
The suspects, who were not identified by Sheriff's Department officials, were taken to local hospitals for treatment of dog bites from a police K-9. One of the suspects was also shot in the hand. Neither man's injuries were considered life-threatening.
"Officer Selby was one of Shelby County's finest,'' Sheriff Mark Luttrell said as dozens of city and county law enforcement officers gathered outside The Med's emergency room after word of the shooting spread.
"This is a tragedy of the worst proportions. Our hearts go out to his family. All people who are decent and have a respect for the law will be impacted by this incident.''
Selby and at least four other deputies were serving a search warrant to look for drugs in the house at 2433 Chattering Lane about 6 p.m., Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Shular said.
"They knocked on the door and identified themselves. At that point there was no answer from the door, and then there were shots from inside the house," Shular said.
The officers returned fire, forced open the front door and sent a police dog into the house, he said.
The dog quickly cornered both suspects, Shular said.
The ambulance carrying Selby to The Med was given a police escort with officers blocking intersections along the way to clear the ambulance's path.
The two ambulances carrying the suspects left later.
Investigators using yellow crime scene tape cordoned off the single-story brick house south of Mountain Terrace.
Davian Walker, who lives nearby, was among the neighbors who gathered a block from the house.
Walker said his grandmother told him and others in their house to hit the floor when the gunfire began.
"At first we thought it was a backfire - the first shot. Then it sounded like some assault rifles going off," Walker said.
Walker said he didn't know the two men inside the house.
"They were some quiet folks. Nothing didn't really happen over there. This is shocking to me that it happened over here," he said.
But Shular said Narcotics Unit officers believed there were drugs in the house.
"They had reason to believe that there were both cocaine and marijuana in the house," Shular said, citing the search warrant the officers had. "Anytime you have a situation where there's a warrant it makes for a very tense situation We do as much planning as we can to make sure that things are in order."
Selby, who was married with two children, had been with the Narcotics Unit for two years and joined the department in 1994, Luttrell said as he announced Selby's death.
Selby is the first sheriff's deputy to die in the line of duty since Deputy Rupert Peete Jr. was shot and killed in March 2000.
Ex-firefighter Frederick Williams is charged with the fatal attack on Peete and two Memphis firefighters after allegedly killing his wife and setting fire to their house at 4217 Germantown Road South.
As investigators interviewed officers involved in the shooting outside the house in Frayser, other officers wept and hugged outside the hospital emergency room and offered their condolences to Selby's family.
As of late Wednesday, investigators would not comment on whether they found any guns in the house, as well as the drugs the unit was seeking.
Luttrell promised a full briefing on the shooting today.
- Bill Dries: 529-2643 - Yolanda Jones: 529-2380