A man who is suspected to have fired a single shot into a Memphis TV station is now in police custody, according to the Memphis Police Department.
According to a post made by Fox 13 Memphis on Facebook, police said that the suspect shot into the station and then “barricaded himself inside of Ubee’s,” (located at 521 South Highland Street).
The station said that no one was injured.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Three United States Postal Service (USPS) employees were killed at a Memphis facility Tuesday, one dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The shooting happened at a USPS inspection facility at the East/Lamar Carrier Annex in Orange Mound at the corner of Park and Pendleton, according to Susan Link, a postal inspector in Memphis.
“Three employees are deceased and there is no ongoing threat,” Link said during a brief news conference Tuesday afternoon.
Lisa-Anne Culp, Public Affairs Officer with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Memphis office, said ”the shooter was one of the three employees deceased of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound and the investigation is ongoing.”
Memphis Police Department (MPD) is supporting FBI and United State Postal Service (USPS) officials at a shooting in Orange Mound.
No more details are available. This story will be updated.
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.”
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump demands that the Kroger security guard who fatally shot a Black man over the weekend be held accountable.
Alvin Motley was shot and killed by a security guard at an East Memphis Kroger fuel station Saturday after a dispute over loud music. A day after the shooting, the shooter, Gregory Livingston was charged with second degree murder.
Crump, who has been retained to represent the Motley family, said at a press conference Tuesday the death of Motley was preventable. Playing music should not be something that’s fatal, Crump said.
“Another unarmed Black person was killed because he was profiled, because of the color of his skin,” Crump said. “How many more times will we have to face these tragedies — these senseless unjustifiable tragedies that leave our children in the morgue and families with holes in their hearts?”
Crump also added it is Kroger’s responsibility to hire security guards who respect Black customers.
Crump called for people all over America to go to Kroger and play music for Motley to let Kroger know “our music should not prove fatalities for our children.”
President of the Memphis NAACP chapter Van Turner was also at Tuesday’s press conference. Turner called the shooting a “cold-blooded murder.”
He invited those in attendance to “say his name.”
“Let’s make sure that name means something in this community,” Turner said. “We have to let this family know that we aren’t going to forget Alvin Motley. His murder will not be in vain.”
Turner said Livingston and Kroger need to be held accountable.
“We’re here today to resurrect justice,” Turner said. “We’re here to resurrect justice for this family and for Black people who have been dying in this country since we stepped foot on these shores unjustly.”
Senator Katrina Robinson, also present, said Motley’s death was a result of systemic racism.
“Black people, we have to stop meeting like this,” Robinson said. “One may look at this incident and think that it’s isolated. Nothing about this is isolated. This is a result of systemic racism bleeding all the way down from a Kroger security guard.”
Kroger released a statement on Motley’s death Tuesday.
“We are deeply saddened, extremely angry and horrified by this senseless violence,” the statement reads. “Our hearts are with the Motley family. This tragic incident involved a third-party contractor onsite to provide security services at our Poplar Avenue Fuel Center. We ask all third-party contractors to respect and honor our core values which include respect, diversity, and inclusion. We want to thank the Memphis Police Department for their swift action. The only outcome we seek is justice.”
In the wake of the fatal shooting of Greater Memphis Chamber president and CEO Phil Trenary, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said Friday that gun violence is a problem in Memphis, as it is across the country.
Memphis Magazine
Phil Trenary
“I will say, this particular one hits a little closer to home because I knew Phil,” Strickland said in a Friday morning press conference. “We were friends and we worked so well together for the last two and a half years.
“Phil loved Memphis. He was one of the best cheerleaders this city had and he contributed so much to our community. I mourn his death.”
Strickland said he also mourns the deaths of the other Memphians who’ve lost their lives to gun violence. Like many big cities, the mayor says Memphis has too much of it.
Strickland said the city has a long-range plan to tackle gun violence in the city. A large piece of that plan is hiring more police officers, offering more jobs, and giving offenders second chances.
“We’re making progress on that,” the mayor said. “But, it’s a tough, American problem.”
Strickland said MPD is “working very hard to find the perpetrator or perpetrators” involved in Trenary’s death. Trenary was shot at 579 South Front Street Thursday evening after attending a charity event at Loflin Yard.
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The suspect is a black male with dreadlocks who was wearing a blue shirt at the time of the shooting, according to MPD. Lt. Karen Rudolph said Friday morning that investigators are still working to gather details relative to this investigation.
“At this point, it does appear that the victim was alone when the shooting occurred,” according to police. “The suspect, a male black wearing a blue shirt parked along the sidewalk on South Front, got out of his vehicle and approached the victim at which time the victim was shot. It is still unknown whether if this was a robbery or a personal vendetta.”
Happy Independence day. In Memphis, the local news crews requested that people not fire their guns into the air because the ammunition will ultimately come down somewhere. But I suppose that demographic wasn’t watching the news and shot up the place anyway. A man ate some Bar-B-Que with his ex-girlfriend’s family in Overton Park, then shot her and killed himself. A man was struck in the leg while mowing his yard, a mother and her young child were grazed by bullets as they celebrated in a downtown park, and my stepson, Cameron, and two of his friends were robbed at gunpoint in an elevator of the parking garage at Peabody Place …
For more of Randy Haspel’s take on Fourth of July in Memphis, check out his blog, Born Again Hippies.
A special prosecutor for the Arkansas State Police announced that a criminal investigation into the June 22nd West Memphis police killing of 12-year-old DeAuntae Farrow turned up no evidence to support criminal charges against West Memphis police officer Erik Sammis, who shot the boy, or his partner Jimmy Ellis.
Sammis and Ellis were staking out an apartment complex next to the one Farrow lived in, when they saw Farrow and his cousin playing nearby. The officers claim that they mistook Farrow’s toy pistol for a real gun in the dark. They ordered the boys to lay down. Farrow’s cousin obliged, officers say, but Farrow did not, and instead moved toward the officers and raised the toy gun, prompting Sammis to fire.
H.G. Foster, the special prosecutor, said at a press conference today, that officers followed protocol. The state investigation of the shooting is closed. Federal investigators earlier found no evidence to support prosecuting Sammis for violating Farrow’s civil rights. A $125 million civil suit by Farrow’s mother against the West Memphis police is still pending.
Foster said that Farrow’s last words were, “It’s just a toy.”