The gunman who killed one person and injured 14 others at a Collierville Kroger Thursday was a third-party vendor for the store, according to Collierville Police Chief Dale Lane.
Lane said at a Friday morning press conference that he would not reveal the name of the shooter at this time: “I’m not giving notoriety on this platform.”
Major David Townsend did confirm the identity of the gunman following the press conference. The shooter was 29-year-old UK Thang.
A search warrant was executed at the gunman’s home overnight and the collected evidence is still being processed, Lane said. Additionally, police are still processing the scene inside the Kroger, which Lane said will likely take place through the evening.
Lane said he cannot reveal any more details, such as motive, as the investigation is still ongoing.
“We’re getting a clearer picture of what occurred, but we’re not ready to release that,” Lane said. “We want to make sure that we dot the i’s and cross the t’s.”
After opening fire in the store Thursday around 1:30 p.m., the gunman was found dead on the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot, according to police.
Ten of the victims were employees and five were customers, Lane said. All of the injured victims are in stable condition as of Friday morning.
A Facebook post by Wes King confirmed that his mother, Olivia King was the victim killed in Thursday’s shooting.
“Dear friends, it is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that my mother has died to her wounds. I spoke directly to the trauma surgeon,” King wrote. “She was shot directly in the chest. EMTs attempted CPR until the hospital. They tried to save her at the hospital to no avail. I apologize for the graphic details, but this type of crime needs to stop being glossed over and sanitized. No one deserves this.”
Organizers of a community-centered revitalization plan for Orange Mound are seeking resident feedback.
The plan, Mound Up, is a collaboration between JUICE Orange Mound and the Rhodes College Urban Studies Department that began in the spring of 2020.
Britney Thornton, founder of JUICE, is leading the charge to create a strong resident-driven plan in order to have a say about future development in Orange Mound.
“When people show up ready to develop, they’re not trying to wait on you to come up with your plans,” she said. “We want to be ready and in position to know what our asks are. Otherwise, we would just have to follow the lead of people who show up ready with money.”
Thornton said the goal is to get 350 responses to the survey on the plan by the spring in order to have a finalized plan by the end of the spring.
Thornton said the inspiration for the plan came from South Memphis’ revitalization plan, SoMe Rap.
“They’re rallying around an actual document that they created with resident input,” Thornton said. “This isn’t something where we feel like we’re innovating. We’re just replicating and just trying to put a spin on it wherever we can to make it something uniquely signature to Orange Mound.”
Thornton said the motivation to initiate the plan came as she began to notice a shift in the market with more interest in Orange Mound properties. She feared that if there was no intervention, people in Orange Mound would be displaced.
“We want to be ready and in position to know what our asks are.”
“So I knew we had to do something,” Thornton said. “Mound Up is a proactive approach for us to be able to be in position to show up in these conversations knowing what it is that we want and know what direction we want to go in.”
Displacement is prone to happen, Thornton said, but the goal is to prevent the culture of Orange Mound from being completely altered.
“Our whole premise is that we want to work with people to develop people,” Thornton said. “We don’t want to displace people.”
Thornton, who is from Orange Mound, said it’s always been her desire to move back into the neighborhood. But she said she doesn’t want to sacrifice any of her expectations.
“I want the house that I want, the look that I want, and the amenities in the community that I want,” Thornton said. “It’s been a real fight to advocate for the things that I personally want to see in my community. I have to go to neighboring communities often to access the amenities that I seek.”
Thornton said the neighborhood needs a spectrum of options in housing, amenities, and common community spaces.
“To be as great as we can be, we need to see more options,” Thornton said. “Those options need to scale down to meet people where they are and also scale up to be able to offer attractive options for people who want to come here.”
Austin Harrison, adjunct professor at Rhodes, is leading the course that is working with Juice to bring the plan to fruition.
The courses began last fall, introducing students to Orange Mound and the needs of the neighborhood. Topics included housing, community development, and the history of systemic racism — “why and how Orange Mound looks the way it does and Chickasaw Gardens looks the way it does.”
With the help of community leaders, the students came up with six focus areas for the plan: housing, community health, crime and public safety, economic development, education, and cultural preservation.
This is the second year of the project with a new class of 13 students. This year’s class is centered on crafting strategies to implement the plan, focusing on how to implement an equitable plan with community input.
Throughout the process, Harrison said community engagement is a key part of the plan’s success.
“Engagement isn’t static for us,” Harrison said. “It’s something that we’ll continue to do. We think when you’re working relational and not transactional, there isn’t just an event that you call engagement and you check that box and move on. We’re always working side by side.”
It comes down to ownership, Harrison said. If residents in the neighborhood don’t see themselves in the plan, they aren’t going to fully support it.
“If community members don’t feel like they own the plan or it’s something they had a say in, it’s going to make implementing it almost impossible,” Harrison said.
When the plan is complete, Harrison said he would love to have the support of local government, but the plan will move forward and be enacted whether there is official adoption of it or not.
“We’re not asking for it,” Harrison said. “It’s not ‘can you let us implement this?’ It’s more of ‘this is what Orange Mound sees for their community.’ We’re telling government officials, developers, and outside actors looking to work with Orange Mound, these are the rules of engagement.’”
“If community members don’t feel like they own the plan or it’s something they had a say in, it’s going to make implementing it almost impossible.”
Harrison hopes that the plan will lay a framework for other neighborhoods to replicate.
“It’s a framework for holding stakeholders accountable,” Harrison said. “It’s also a framework for residents to take control of their neighborhoods. We want residents to take control of the narrative and of who is casting the vision for where they live.”
As the first neighborhood built by African Americans for African Americans, Orange Mound has a rich history that Thornton and Harrison hope is reflected in the plan. Harrison said he’s never interacted with a community that has such pride. That’s why cultural preservation is one of the project’s six focus areas.
“It may seem odd to some other planners to include cultural preservation as a priority, but I don’t think that’s an option in Orange Mound,” Harrison said. “A through line throughout the process is preserving the culture and keeping legacy residents at the forefront of our planning. That’s what’s missing from a lot of neighborhood redevelopment plans.”
The first trangender-focused exhibition at Brooks Museum of Art will open on Saturday.
The exhibition, “On Christopher Street,” by New York-based photographer Mark Seliger, features portraits of transgender individuals in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Greenwich Village is said to be the birthplace of the LGBTQ rights movement following the police raid on the historic gay bar The Stonewall Inn in 1969. That raid sparked protests on the street that would later be commemorated with Pride marches all over the world.
Seliger began taking the portraits in 2014 and continued for about three years, capturing 60 subjects. He started with a small camera kit, taking pictures after work as a way to document the neighborhood.
Christopher Street, a safe haven for many, began to change and Seliger wanted to capture the community before it completely transformed.
“I’d stop people on the street and ask if I could take a quick portrait of them,” he said. “ I wasn’t sure where the project was going, but it evolved from there.”
As Seliger continued snapping photos, he asked himself what was unique about his portraits. Then he realized he was beginning to tell a story about identity, focusing on transgender individuals. Seliger said he wanted to dig deeper and learn more about the subjects of his photos.
His subjects told him stories of their successes and accomplishments, as well as the hurdles they had to overcome to become who they are today.
“My subjects were being the truest to themselves as they had ever been, as if it was the first time they’d really been seen in this light,” Seliger said. “That was really kind of an amazing moment.”
Taking the portraits, Seliger also said he began to learn more about the importance of identity.
“As I was learning about the idea of being comforted with who you are and how you identify while being the truest to who you are, I realized that’s important to your own personal worth and connection to others and yourself,” Seliger said. “That was very meaningful to me.”
At the end of the day, Seliger believes his portraits capture the human experience, which is “remarkable, profound, and terrifying.”
For those that view his photos, Seliger just wants them to gain a new sense of understanding and awareness for the human struggle.
“Ultimately, it’s for the viewer to determine how they want to react to it,” Seliger said. “We give them as much information as we can in order to lead people to their own level of clarity. But I think the work is eye-opening and hopefully will start a conversation that we need to have about gender and inclusivity.”
Brooks’ curator of European and decorative art, Rosamund Garrett, said Seliger’s photos not only showcase the trans community, but also tell the story of gentrification.
“For years, Mark has witnessed the steady erosion of the rich cultural diversity of the area and its replacement with luxury boutiques,” Garrett said. “His striking portraits not only celebrate the trans community but also represent a cautionary tale about gentrification. This message is as resonant in Memphis in 2021 as it has been in New York City and other communities around the country for years.”
The exhibition will run from Saturday, September 18th to January 9th. Seliger and four of his portrait subjects will be present at the hybrid virtual/in-person opening reception on Friday. The event will be live streamed here.
Additionally, Brooks is hosting a panel discussion with Alex Hauptman from OUTMemphis and Kayla Gore from My Sistah’s House about Memphis’ LGTBQ community on Saturday.
A federal appeals court upheld a lower court’s decision Friday to block a Tennessee abortion ban that was signed into law last year.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit agreed with Middle Tennessee District Judge William Campbell’s preliminary injunction, which blocked the law from taking effect shortly after it passed.
The law bans abortion at certain gestational ages beginning at six weeks. It also bans abortion based on a Down syndrome diagnosis or because of the gender or race of the fetus.
The provisions of the law are “constitutionally unsound,” Judge Martha Daughtrey wrote in the opinion.
“Although this circuit’s recent — and alarming — decisions have broadened the extent to which the government may impede a person’s constitutional right to choose whether to carry a pregnancy to term, the law remains clear that if a regulation is a substantial obstacle to a woman seeking an abortion, it is invalid,” the opinion reads. “We take note that state legislatures recently have passed more anti-abortion regulations than perhaps at any other time in this country’s history.However, this development is not a signal to the courts to change course.”
Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee applauded the court’s decision.
“People should be able to make decisions for themselves about whether and when to become a parent, without politicians interfering,” Weinberg said. “ Today’s ruling is critical to Tennesseans’ ability to continue receiving safe and legal abortion care. We will continue to fight this unconstitutional law until it is struck down for good.”
Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, said the decision allows abortion to remain safe and legal in Tennessee despite a “national, coordinated attack on abortion rights.”
“We trust our patients to make their own fully informed reproductive healthcare decisions,” Coffield said. “We are thankful that the court ruled to protect that trust and ensure that we can continue to provide expert, compassionate abortion care in our state.”
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris. (Courtesy Shelby County Government).
The county is ready to welcome Afghan refugees, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said in a letter to President Joe Biden.
Harris sent a letter to Biden Thursday affirming the county’s position to resettle those fleeing Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover last month, saying that he hopes the offer will be a lifeline for those who assisted U.S. troops.
“As our country welcomes refugees from Afghanistan, I am writing to let you know the government of Shelby County, Tennessee, stands ready to provide support and stability to those fleeing violence and oppression,” Lee said. “I believe we have a moral duty to help those in dire circumstances who supported our troops.”
Harris added that the county will welcome those who are likely to face discrimination and harassment in Afghanistan — women and girls seeking to further their education and LGBTQ+ individuals.
“We know resettlement is often a last resort for those who cannot return home,” Lee wrote. “As they travel across the oceans and start to rebuild their lives, we offer our goodwill and support. In our community, we take pride in having grit.
“These refugees have proven to have that same spirit. We would be honored to have them join our community. For these reasons and more, Shelby County proudly stands with your administration in offering a beacon of hope to the Afghan refugees.”
Rallies are planned Wednesday across the country and in Memphis for Pervis Payne, a Memphis man who has been on death row for 33 years.
The rallies taking place in New York, Chicago, Dallas, Washington D.C., and here near the intersection of Union and McLean, will mark the one-year anniversary of the weekly #FreePervisPayne rallies in Memphis.
A year ago, Andre Johnson, pastor of Gifts of Life Ministries, began organizing weekly rallies here to raise awareness about Payne’s case.
Since then, the Innocence Project, which works to exonerate the wrongfully convicted, has taken on Payne’s case, working to get him off death row. The group started a petition in support of Payne, which has garnered more than 750,000 signatures to date.
Johnson issued a call to action on Facebook Wednesday, urging people to “come and bear witness.”
“You really want to be on the right side of history,” Johnson said. “And you really want to be able to say that you were a participant and helped free an innocent man… We believe that Pervis Payne is profoundly and profusely innocent of this crime.”
The rally in Memphis is scheduled for 4 p.m.
Payne was convicted of murdering Charisse Christopher and her two-year-old daughter in 1987. He was set to be executed in December 2020, but was granted a temporary reprieve of execution due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In May, Payne’s legal team filed a petition arguing that it would be illegal to execute Payne because he has an intellectual disability. A hearing on this claim is set for December 13.
The video footage capturing the fatal shooting of Alvin Motley Jr. will not be released for now, a judge ruled Tuesday.
General Sessions Judge Louis Montesi Jr. issued a written order saying that the footage will not be released before a preliminary hearing set for September 28th takes place.
“In order to protect the right of the accused to a fair and impartial preliminary hearing and promote public trust in the integrity of the criminal justice system during the pendency of this court, it is the order of this court that until the court conducts a preliminary hearing for the defendant, the state is prohibited from releasing to or providing a copy of the audio and video recordings, which are the subject of the defendant’s motions, to the victim’s family or any member of the public,” the order reads in part.
The footage was shown to Motley’s family late last month, and they have since called for it to be publicly released.
Motley was allegedly fatally shot on August 7th by former Horn Lake police officer Gregory Livingston following a verbal altercation over loud music, police say. Livingston was charged with second degree murder and is currently in jail on a $1.8 million bond.
Ben Crump, the civil rights attorney representing the Motley family, said he is “disheartened” by the court’s decision.
“The court’s decision further delays the clarity, transparency, and answers that the family and community deserve,” Crump said in a statement. “Decisions like this one do nothing to improve public confidence in equal justice and due process as it relates to African Americans.
“We have never seen a video of a Black man killing a white man be blocked from public release out of concern for a fair and impartial jury for the defendant like we see here. The pursuit of justice for Alvin is far from over.”
The city is looking for feedback on four proposed street reconfigurations scheduled to take place beginning in summer 2022.
The four street segments include portions of Barron Avenue, Shady Grove Road, Latham Street, and Whitney/Clifton Avenue. All of the streets will get a road diet or a reduction in travel lanes. This is meant to slow traffic, decrease the number of crashes, and limit the crossing distance for pedestrians.
On Barron Avenue, from Pendleton to Prescott, the number of lanes would be reduced from four to three with one lane traveling in each direction and a turning lane. The lanes would also be narrowed and a bike lane would be added on each side of the street.
The shared lanes on Shady Grove Road between Yates and Humphreys would be replaced with narrower lanes for cars and buffered bike lanes going in each direction. The city is also proposing to remove on-street parking on the south side of Shady Grove between I-240 and Brierview.
On Latham Street from Mallory to Person, the existing four lanes would be reduced to three narrower lanes and a turning lane would be added. There would also be on-street parking and bike lanes on both sides of the street.
On Whitney Avenue between Watkins and Range Line, the number of lanes would be reduced from four to three with one lane traveling in each direction and a turning lane. The segment of Watkins from Overton Crossing to the merge with Clifton Road would be reconfigured from five lanes to three. A bike lane is proposed for the entire segment.
A survey for each of the four proposals can be found here. The public has until September 12 to provide feedback.
In addition to the four street segments above, the city plans to repave or add bike lanes to about two dozen other major streets. But these streets won’t see a reduction in lanes or change in on-street parking space.
Here is a list of the major street segments scheduled to be resurfaced in FY23:
Egypt Central – Grand Cedar to Hawkins Mill (No Change)
Hawkins Mill – Egypt Central to New Allen (No Change)
Littlemore – Chimney Rock to Rockcreek (Bike Lanes)
Quince – 200 North of Messick to Kirby (Bike Lanes)
Messick – Quince to McVay (Bike Lanes)
S. Germantown – City Limits to Winchester (Paved Shoulder)
Riverdale Bend – Winchester to Riverdale (Paved Shoulder)
Holmes – Hickory Hill to 1,500 East of Lamar (No Change)
Kirby Pkwy. – Winchester to Shelby (Bike Lane)
Pleasant Hill – E. Holmes to City Limit (No Change)
Clearbrook – American Way to Winchester (Paved Shoulders + Marked Shared Lanes)
Cottonwood/Comanche – Perkins to Getwell (No Change)
Hollywood – Union to Southern (Marked Shared Lanes)
Hollywood – Central to Southern (Bike Lanes)
Tutwiler – Graham to Perkins (Paved Shoulders + Marked Shared Lanes)
Waring – Walnut Grove to Summer (Paved Shoulders + Marked Shared Lanes)
Southern – Highland to Western Dead End (No Change)
Prescott – Southern to Spottswood (No Change)
Graham – Goodlett to Walnut Grove (No Change)
Shelby – Weaver to Sewanne (No Change)
Madison – Pauline to Watkins (TBD)
South Parkway – College to Bellevue (Buffered Bike Lanes)
Fourth – Union to Washington
Manassas – N. Pkwy. to Chelsea (Bike Lanes/Paved Shoulders)
Bellevue – N. Pkwy. to Poplar (Bike Lanes/Protected Bike Lanes)
A map with all of the city’s scheduled re-paving projects including neighborhood streets can be found here.
The abortion ban that went into effect in Texas on Wednesday is a part of a national agenda to end abortion access in the country, according to the head of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi.
“People in Tennessee have got to watch what’s happening in Texas really closely because Gov. [Bill] Lee and the General Assembly could very easily replicate S.B. 8. here,” said president and CEO Ashley Coffield.
The attacks on abortion access are relentless and have been ramping up in Tennessee, she said, citing a 2020 executive order from Lee that excluded abortions as an essential healthcare service.
Texas law, S.B. 8, which bans abortion at around six weeks or when there is cardiac activity, went into effect Wednesday. Abortion providers say this is before many women even know they are pregnant.
“This means as of today any pregnant person who lives in Texas will simply not be able to access an abortion,” Coffield said.
The law makes no exceptions for pregnacies resulting from rape or incest.
Unlike other six-week bans, Texas’ law turns over enforcement of the ban from the government to private citizens. The law allows anyone to sue abortion providers and anyone who helps a woman get an abortion. Those sued could have to pay up to $10,000 in damages. Coffield said the law was designed to “nefariously skirt” being struck down in court as unconstitutional.
Tennessee passed a “heartbeat bill” last year, but it was immediately blocked by a federal court from going into effect. However, the court allowed a portion of the law, which prohibits abortions based on a Down syndrome diagnosis or because of the gender or race of the fetus, to take effect.
The case is currently being reviewed by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Under current Tennessee law, abortions are illegal after viability (which is around 24 weeks), except in cases where a woman’s life is endangered. Among other provisions, Tennessee requires parental consent for minors seeking abortion and a mandatory 48-hour waiting period before women can receive an abortion. This measure was ruled legal by a U.S. Appeals court last month.
Most recently, the state passed a law requiring medical providers who provide abortions to bury or cremate the fetal remains. Coffield calls this a “hateful and intrusive measure.”
“These mandates were written by politicians and not doctors in an effort to shame people who need an abortion and make abortion providers jumo through more costly and unnecessary hoops to provide healthcare,” Coffield said. “These mandates just tell us that the legislature and Gov. Lee will stop at nothing to take our rights away.”
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear a case on Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban later this year, which could overturn Roe v. Wade, Coffield said.
“Unfortunately, we’re starting to think about what it will take to help our patients find care outside of Tennessee if the worst happens,” Coffield said. “Without Roe, there is no protection for abortions in Tennessee. No one should have to prepare for losing access to essential healthcare or have the added burden of figuring out how to find an out-of-state healthcare provider because of politicians.”
Bus riders are waiting longer for buses or sometimes waiting for a bus that never arrives due to a Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) staffing shortage.
MATA’s goal for on-time performance, which measures how often buses arrive within a seven-minute window of their scheduled time, is 76 percent. Since May it’s been at 63 percent.
Gary Rosenfeld, MATA’s CEO, said that number is “totally unacceptable.” He said a shortage of bus operators has affected MATA’s ability to improve its on-time performance and meet the expectations of customers.
MATA has about 200 fixed-route bus operators and needs about 30 more just to have enough manpower to provide reliable daily services. Rosenfeld said this is especially true as the number of Covid-19 cases continues to rise in the county.
“We’ve been hit with Covid-related absences at a much higher rate this month than last month or the month before,” Rosenfeld said. “We find ourselves with not enough operators to put all the service in the streets according to what’s posted in the schedule.”
Rosenfeld said he knows this puts additional stress on passengers, as well as the employers whose employees depend on MATA to get to work on time.
“I emphasize and sympathize with our passengers,” Rosenfeld said. “It just creates a really bad situation for them and for our employees who catch the brunt of people’s stress and anger over poor service conditions.”
There is also a shortage of mechanics who are needed to regularly inspect the buses. On average, buses need to be inspected every eight to ten days, Rosenfeld said. Without a full complement of mechanics, the inspections back up and those buses can’t run.
“So you can see the gravity of the situation,” Rosenfeld said. “If we fall behind a day or two because of a shortage of qualified mechanics, we quickly fall behind in the number of buses that are available to provide service. And we will not sacrifice safety and put buses in the street that are not inspected.”
‘It’s Not Pretty’
With late buses, or buses not showing up at all, Sammie Hunter, co-chair of the Memphis Bus Riders Union, said he and other bus riders struggle to get to jobs, school, and other essential destinations like the grocery store. Hunter said August has been particularly rough as temperatures rose above 90 degrees most days.
“You have people that have to stand in the heat and the sun when the bus they’re waiting on might not even show up,” Hunter said. “I’ve seen it all and it’s not pretty.”
Hunter said he relies on the 69 route to get home after work and often waits two hours for it to arrive.
“When I get off work, it’s the end of the day, I’m tired, and I’m ready to go home,” Hunter said. “Taxpayers deserve reliable, sufficient transportation. We should be able to go to a stop, get on a bus, and get where we need to in a reasonable amount of time.”
Hunter said he understands “things happen,” but there needs to be contingency plans for situations like bus operator shortages.
‘Doing All We Can’
Rosenfeld said the issue is not limited to MATA or Memphis. There has been a shortage of commercial drivers in the country for the past several years, he said. The pandemic has exacerbated that.
“Just like the medical profession is seeing an exodus because of what nurses and hospital workers are going through, our frontline folks are dealing with many of the same issues,” Rosenfeld said. “They have to deal with the public and trying to enforce reasonable rules for public safety while operating a bus is not necessarily an easy job.”
As a result, employees are finding jobs with less responsibility or retiring.
“Employees are in charge right now in terms of the market,” Rosenfeld said. “Employers are really at a disadvantage.”
“Just like the medical profession is seeing an exodus because of what nurses and hospital workers are going through, our frontline folks are dealing with many of the same issues.”
Rosenfeld said MATA has been working to recruit employees for “quite some time” with signing bonuses, a modified training program, and revamped benefits packages.
“We’re doing all we can to generate interest in our program for new employees,” Rosenfeld said. “At the same time, so is every other employer in the service industry in the greater Memphis area.”
One way MATA attempted to recruit more employees is by raising its starting wages to $19.35 an hour for bus operators after they complete training and $26 an hour for mechanics, but Rosenfeld said that still isn’t enough to compete with other major transportation companies in the region.
The average starting wage for commercial operators has increased from $12 an hour to over $25 an hour in the past 18 months, he said. In retail, there’s an avenue to generate more revenue to pay employees more, but MATA has a fixed revenue.
“From a wage and benefit perspective, we’ve probably done all we can do for right now,” Rosenfeld said. “But if we end up at the top of the hill, it won’t take long for other companies to either match it or exceed it.”
