MEMPHIS, TN - (WMC-TV) – Action News 5 is digging deeper into the past of a Memphis police officer who was placed on leave for shooting and killing a man.
One of the officers involved in the shooting was already under the Memphis police department's sights for performance issues. The department recommended Officer Ned Aufdenkamp for the early intervention program last year.
"I cried like a baby when I found out it happened, and I just hope his family gets the justice that's due to them," friend Randle Spencer said.
Spencer cried when he learned his friend Steven Askew had been shot to death by two Memphis police officers, Ned Aufdenkamp and Matt Dyess. The officers answered a loud music call at the Windsor Place apartments, January 17th. They found Askew asleep in his car. When they knocked on the window and gave verbal commands and the officers say Askew then pointed a gun at them.
Aufdenkamp, has a personnel record with a long list of problems. He was ordered to undergo anger management last year.
His personnel file lists four workstation complaints against him and seven reports of people resisting arrest beginning in 2009. He was suspended for two days because of the number of resisting arrest reports he filed.
On January 5th, Aufdenkamp was involved in an argument with a fellow officer at a traffic stop.
Internal affairs got a report on another occasion that Aufdenkamp was rude and disrespectful and approached with his gun out.
In other instances the officer's file indicates he did not follow protocol. Including not reporting when he bottomed out and disabled his patrol car in 2011. Another complaint stated Aufdenkamp stopped a violator, roughed him up, broke his rear windshield with his flashlight then got on his loud speaker and used a racial slur.
We reached out to Police Director Toney Armstrong for a comment but have not yet heard back. Mike Williams, head of the police union did not want to comment. Officers Aufdenkamp and Dyess are relieved of duty with pay while the shooting is under investigation.
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