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Three arrest warrants were issued for Jared McLemore in the month after he committed suicide by self-immolation outside a Midtown nightclub on May 13.
According information from shelbywarrants.org, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office Warrant Information System, a warrant was issued for Jared McLemore on the charge of domestic assault-bodily harm on May 12, the day before he publicly killed himself.
McLemore had been harassing his ex-girlfriend, Alyssa Moore, by breaking into her house and assaulting her. He had a long history of violence towards Moore, which led to his arrest on August 16.
The May 12 warrant was issued after several days in which Moore, her friends, and family, had called police reporting McLemore’s threatening behavior. Moore and other people also posted public evidence of McLemore’s threats to kill her and himself on Facebook the week of May 8.
McLemore made good on his threats by dousing himself in kerosene, lighting himself on fire, and attempting to burn down Murphy’s, the club where Moore worked as a sound engineer, by running inside while on fire. The entire incident was broadcast on Facebook Live, where it was viewed by thousands of people.
A second warrant for domestic assault/threat of bodily harm, was issued for McLemore on June 5, 23 days after he died. Then, on June 20, 2017, two more warrants were issued for McLemore on charges of violation of probation.
Paul Garner, who was injured while trying to stop McLemore from lighting himself on fire, said he was first alerted to the new warrants by a friend who subscribes to the Memphis Police Department’s (MPD) Cyberwatch program.
“This just adds insult to injury in a lot of different levels,” Garner said, calling the whole incident “an extreme example of what happens when these systems fail victims.”
Garner contacted Sara Moore, Alyssa’s sister who has been acting as her spokesperson.
“We actually knew about the warrant on June 5,” Sara Moore said. “Alyssa just happened to be looking at her case details on the portal for people who are in the system in connection with ongoing case. At that time, we kind of just brushed it off for our own mental health. This is bizarre, and we don’t understand it, but we’ll just ignore it for our own healing.”
The June 20 warrants prompted the Moore family to contact the media.
[pullquote-1]“At that point, it just seemed so ridiculous and disrespectful, not only to our family, but to Jared’s friends and family that warrants could be issued because a dead man can’t check in with his parole officer,” Sara Moore said.
Moore says her last contact with the police was on or around June 8.
“Two officers showed up to an apartment we shared asking for Alyssa’s GPS device back,” Sara Moore said. “It was to be returned as it was no longer needed by her to be kept safe from Jared. I had to ask the officers who came to our door if there were any updates. They told me no, there were no updates, the case was closed, it was ruled a suicide.”
MPD spokeswoman Karen Rudolph said in an email that she could not address the two probation violation warrants of June 20, because MPD does not issue probation violation warrants. Of the first domestic assault warrant, she said, “the domestic assault warrant was issued on May 12, 2017, the day before the incident occurred involving Mr. McLemore.”
Rudolph did not comment on the June 5 warrant for domestic assault/threat of bodily harm. As of press time, all four warrants were still listed on the shelbywarrants.org portal.
“This is just a more egregious example of too little, too late,” said Sara Moore.
