Man claims he was beaten with chairs, ping pong equipment after shooting officer

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    Memphis, TN (WREG) — The man who shot a Memphis police officer during a 2015 drug investigation claims other officers beat him following his arrest.

Daniel Jefferson claims when he shot the plainclothes officer, he didn’t know he was with the Memphis Police Department.

“He jumped out on me with his gun, so I let off my shots, and I kept on going,” Jefferson said. “I thought it was just a regular [expletive] — regular person trying to rob me.”

When asked if he was sorry for shooting the officer, Jefferson replied: “No, because you see, I ain’t know who he was.”

But Jefferson is very upset about the beating he said he endured at the hands of five police officers while handcuffed at the Raines police precinct.

“They beat me with chairs, ping pong tables; man, I had permanent boot marks on my back for months,” Jefferson said.

His account is laid out in internal MPD documents. They show excessive force complaints were upheld against three of the five accused officers.

“I don’t know if you ever got stomped in your ribs, beat in your ribs, hit with chairs and [expletive], but that’s a hard butt-whopping to heal from,” Jefferson said.

Jefferson ended up serving time for aggravated assault and being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun. The attempted first-degree murder charge against him was ultimately dropped.

“I ain’t gonna lie, if I would have knew he was an officer, I would have surrendered. You know what I’m saying? I ain’t trying to shoot no police officer,” Jefferson said.

But he worries about what else could have happened to him the day of his arrest and feels the city should compensate him.

“They know they … have to pay big boy bag of money, you hear me?” he said, although acknowledged he hadn’t filed a lawsuit.

MPD didn’t respond to Jefferson’s claims when asked Monday.

Several of the officers involved in the case received suspensions, but their current employment status was unclear as of Monday evening.

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