CRIME

Woman shot, killed outside South Memphis gas station

Yolanda Jones
yolanda.jones@commercialappeal.com

A 32-year-old woman was shot and killed as she sat in her car outside a South Memphis gas station early Tuesday morning.

Police responded to a shots-fired call at 3:46 a.m. at the Roma Mart in the 500 block of Mallory and Lauderdale.

Crime scene tape and police surrounded the gas station where the woman's body lay on the ground near a red Mustang.

Residents said she had just gotten off work from the nearby FedEx Ground.

Memphis Police Maj. Rodney Adair said as the woman pulled up to the 24-hour store a man opened fire. A man in the car with the woman was not injured. He was detained for questioning.

Adair said the suspect fled and is described as a black man with dreadlocks. He was last seen wearing a gray hoodie.

Resident Reginald Hawkins said he heard four shots from his nearby home.

"I was coming to the store to get a newspaper like I do every morning," Hawkins said. "It is pitiful this happened. The killing has got to stop."