Community members call for peace after shooting kills a mother, injures 6 other people

An earlier version of this story misidentified the victim of the shooting. Latonia Henneghan was the person shot and killed. 

A mother of four children was killed and six other people were injured in a shooting Wednesday night outside a home in the 1000 block of Morehead in North Memphis. Two of the injured were teenagers, and the incident led to immediate condemnation from community members.

"According to several witnesses on the scene, a large fight broke out among several females and a male shot into the air and another male started shooting into the crowd, striking multiple victims on the scene," police spokeswoman Lt. Karen Rudolph said in an emailed statement Thursday morning. 

Police responded to the shooting call shortly after 6 p.m. On the scene, they found a 35-year-old woman lying in front of the home on Morehead with a gunshot wound.

She was taken to the Regional Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.

While at the home, police found a 26-year-old woman, a 21-year-old man, a 20-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl had also been shot. They were taken by a private vehicle to the hospital. 

Police initially said that three adults and a juvenile were shot, but said Thursday that another shooting victim, a 32-year-old man, later showed up at the hospital.

Police said after the shots were fired into the crowd, a 14-year-old girl was hit by a blue Chevrolet Malibu that fled the scene. 

Family and friends identified the woman killed as Latonia Henneghan. Neighbors said she was the mother of four children who ranged in age from 14 to 7-months.

Katherine Tatum sat on her porch Thursday morning trying to process the death of her granddaughter. 

"That was my baby," she said. "I don't know what happened. I just heard the shooting and they told me my baby was gone."

Her neighbor, Marcus Davis, said the Tatum family and his family have lived in the neighborhood for 50 years. 

"We might have altercations or a fight over here, but nothing like this where people shooting into a crowd," Davis said. "This is crazy."

He said Latonia Henneghan was a "nice person" and was saddened by her death. 

"I've known her all my life," Davis said. "I never knew her to be in any fights. I think she was an innocent bystander who got shot when they started shooting." 

He said he thinks the gunmen were "outsiders" who didn't live In the neighborhood. 

"We know all the families over here," Davis said. "I think they were outsiders who spun off their mess over here."

Only one of the six shooting victims in critical condition 

The girl hit by the vehicle and all but one of the shooting victims were reported to be in non-critical condition Thursday morning and have been released from the hospital. Police said the 20-year-old man shot remains in critical condition. 

"At this point, it appears that the victims and suspects are known to each other," Rudolph said. 

She said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing into the shooting. 

Another reminder of 'senseless violence'

The incident was a painful reminder of how the city's ongoing gun violence is affecting teenagers and young children. The crime scene tape on Morehead was about 100 yards from Memphis Scholars Caldwell Guthrie, a school serving students in prekindergarten through fifth grade. 

More:Police say 8-year-old dies in third child shooting in three days

More:Memphis first in accidental child shootings

The shooting took place in the late afternoon. Outside the Regional Medical Center hours later, dozens of people were standing around near the entrance. One woman headed toward the hospital said she was a friend of the victims.

It wasn't possible to learn how most of the people in the crowd were related to the victims, since a security guard told reporters to leave the area and stay on the other side of the street.

Police officers closely watched the crowd outside The Med; at least eight police cars were at the scene at around 9:30 p.m.

Earlier on Morehead, activists with the Black Lives Matter movement had arrived and denounced the violence as senseless. "And it's always young people," said one of the activists, Terrence Boyce, 28, who said he's a Gospel rapper.

"And it's the most important generation. Because they bold enough to pull guns out and kill each other. I just want to push the Gospel, and God turn their heart, and they be bold for him." He was doing a Facebook Live video near the crime scene tape and called for people to come back to the street Thursday evening to pray for peace. 

The immediate public outcry was reminiscent of that for other high-profile crimes this year, including a May shooting that took place during a candlelight vigil for a young woman gunned down the year before and the June killing of two-year-old Laylah Washington. 

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