MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WSVN) — A police department in Tennessee did not find the body of a shooting victim for 7 weeks, even though it had been in the back of a van in the agency’s impound lot the whole time.
The man’s friend, who only would identify himself as Pablo, spent a month in the hospital in critical condition after the Dec. 18 shooting, recovering from multiple gunshot wounds after several suspects tried to rob him and his friends, Fox 13 Memphis reports.
On Monday, he went to pick up his van from the Memphis Police Department. But once he opened up the vehicle, he discovered the body of his friend inside.
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Pablo says that, when investigators visited him in the hospital after the shooting, he made sure to tell them about the two other men who had been with him in the van at the time shots rang out. But police said that isn’t true.
“He only advised that he and victim number two were in the vehicle when the shooting occurred,” MPD Director Michael Rallings told the station.
The department says they are now conducting an internal investigation into why officers did not find the third victim’s body in the van.
“This incident is unacceptable and should never have happened,” Rallings said. “I just can’t explain how this victim stayed in a van and we did not locate him.”
Pablo tells Fox 13 he wonders if his friend would have survived if officers had looked inside the van after the shooting and found him.
“It’s messed up, and I’m very disappointed,” Pablo said. “I still can’t believe what happened.”
Police say they are waiting for results from an autopsy to determine when the victim who was found inside the vehicle died.
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