Violent weekend leaves 5 dead, 7 hurt in four shootings
After a violent weekend that left five more people dead, including two 15-year-old boys, Memphis has already had 16 homicide victims in 2017.
And we're barely three weeks into the year.
While still early, that pace would far outstrip the record number of killings set just last year, when Memphis had 228 homicides. These 16 killings so far put Memphis on a pace for about 265 homicides in 2017.
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"Wow. Wow. It is a horrible number," said Keith Norman, the Memphis Police Department chaplain and pastor of First Baptist-Broad. "It appears this epidemic is not over in this new year. We need to drill down to see what the root causes really are. ... We need to do a deep drill on what causes this."
From early Saturday morning through Sunday afternoon, the city recorded at least five different shootings that left five people dead and seven more with bullet wounds.
Mayor calls those responsible for weekend violence
The most recent victim in the weekend's spasm of violence came about 2:30 p.m. Sunday, when police responded to what seemed like a car crash in the 5300 block of Gloucester in the Raleigh area. However, when officers got to the scene, they noticed that the man who had crashed his car into a pole had a gunshot wound. He was taken to the Regional Medical Center, but did not survive.
That followed the second fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy over the weekend, this one happening a little after 10 p.m. Saturday night outside a home in the 4900 block of Blue Wing. According to police, two females got into a fight in the street, outside the party. Someone in a black vehicle drove up and shouted gang slogans, people said, then opened fire on the crowd that had gathered to watch the fight. The 15-year-old, identified by family on social media as Terrance Maxwell, was pronounced dead on the scene while a 16-year-old was taken by private vehicle to St. Francis Hospital. He was in critical but stable condition Sunday, police said.
The first shooting happened early Saturday morning, when a black Honda Civic pulled up to St. Francis around 12:15 a.m. with three shooting victims inside. The victims told police they were driving on Cherry Road when a gray Nissan Maxima pulled beside them. Someone in the car then opened fire, hitting three of the four people inside the Honda.
Three killed, four injured in separate Saturday shootings
The shooting killed a 15-year-old and critically wounded a 16-year-old, who was airlifted to the Med. An 18-year-old was also wounded, but was in noncritical condition. A 19-year-old was uninjured.
Police have arrested three men in connection with that incident: Demarcus Johnson, 21; Frederick Wilson, 19; and Otha Ray, 20. Each has been charged with one count of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted first-degree murder. Continuing problems with the new Shelby County courts system mean no affidavits are available to shed light on a motive behind the killing.
Then, around 2:20 p.m., someone in a black Chevrolet Impala with tinted windows opened fire on another car with four men inside in the 500 block of Delta Road in the Westwood area of South Memphis. A 31-year-old man died on the scene while a 35-year-old man was taken to the Med, where he later died. A 19-year-old remains at the Med in critical condition while a 29-year-old remains in noncritical condition there.
Norman said the fact that three of this year's 16 fatalities involve teenagers is particularly disturbing.
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"That’s the part that I’m most concerned about," Norman said, adding his belief that poverty and a lack of education are contributing to the soaring homicide rate. "When we don’t address those issues, the problem isn’t going to be solved."