Shooting just north of Medical District fatally injures steel business employee

A shooting outside a steel supply business at 475 N. Dunlap just north of the Medical District fatally injured a man Monday night, police said.

Employees outside Southern Steel Supply Co., a provider of steel bars, beams, tubes and other steel products, said the man who died was a night shift employee of the company.

The workers said they didn't know what had happened. One of the employees went to talk with people who knew the slain worker better than he did, then returned and said the others didn't want to comment now.

Tuesday afternoon, an employee was using a long-handled scrub blush and a yellow bucket of water to clean up the man's blood from the gutter and nearby street by an entrance.

Memphis police responded shortly after 10:17 p.m. on Monday, the department wrote on Twitter, and the victim, later identified by police as 27-year-old Dondriel Cunningham, was taken to the Regional Medical Center where he died Tuesday.

Two male suspects fled the scene in a black Ford Escape, according to police. A $5,000 reward is being offered through Crimestoppers for information about the shooting and suspects. 

The shooting happened outside the building, police spokesman Officer Louis C. Brownlee wrote in an email in early afternoon. No arrests have been made.

The steel business consists of a group of big, high-ceilinged metal buildings. It's several blocks north of LeBonheur Children's Hospital, and from a corner near the business, the pink buildings of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital are visible to the west.

The police are asking anyone with information to call in tips to CrimeStoppers at 901-528-2274.

Reach reporter Daniel Connolly at 529-5296, daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com, or on Twitter at @danielconnolly.