Andre Wharton
Role at the time: Attorney for the family of Jonah Neal, in an interview with NPR
Response to this claim
Family attorney Andre Wharton said body camera footage shown to the family by the Shelby County District Attorney's Office shows that Jonah Neal did not pose a threat that warranted deadly force when the HSI agent shot him.
“It was unjustified in our opinion … The response that we were able to observe was just totally inconsistent with good law enforcement”
NPR report published August 23, 2026, on family attorney Andre Wharton's description of body camera footage shown to the family by the Shelby County District Attorney's Office. It includes statements from Neal's mother and grandmother at a press conference and responses from TBI, the district attorney's office and the White House.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
Relative to the agent's use of deadly force against Neal, Wharton says the shooting was "unjustified in our opinion" and the response "totally inconsistent with good law enforcement". He rejects the use of force directly, so the label is condemns rather than a challenge to a description.