3 shootings in 12 hours leave 3 dead in Memphis

James Sumlin and Artis Mitchell just didn't like each other, simple as that.

And that dislike ignited after a petty dispute Saturday night, ending in gunfire that left both men dead in a South Memphis home.

"Senseless," said Terry Gross, 46, who lives in the home in the 500 block of West Peebles where the shooting happened. "It could've been avoided."

That was just one of at least three separate shootings in a 12-hour span over the weekend that left three men dead and two injured, one critically.

This span of mayhem began at that West Peebles house, where about 25-30 people had gathered for a barbecue, Gross said. Sumlin, who had been rooming with Gross for about six months, began arguing with Mitchell, who is the uncle of Gross's fiancee, he said. The arguments began during a card game, then continued when Sumlin kept trying to lock Mitchell out of the house, Gross said.

"(Mitchell) told him, 'Don't lock that door no more. If you do, I'm gonna beat you,'" Gross said. "(Sumlin) took that as a threat and went and got his shotgun."

At that point, Gross said, Sumlin was brandishing the shotgun while Mitchell sat at the kitchen table. Mitchell was only armed with a knife then, Gross said.

"I told him to go put the gun up. He went to put the gun up. While he was doing that, my (fiancee's) uncle went out to the truck and got his," Gross said. "(Sumlin) came back out with the shotgun. ... My roommate started raising the gun and that's when they started shooting."

Mitchell hit Sumlin with four shots from his revolver, Gross said, while Sumlin hit Mitchell in the chest with two shotgun blasts. Sumlin died on the hallway floor while Mitchell stumbled outside, collapsed on the porch and died there.

On Sunday afternoon, Gross pointed to a bullet hole in his wall and a bullet lodged in his still-working microwave. Blood stains could still be seen on the porch. Gross credits the microwave with saving his life, pointing out that the bullet's trajectory was aimed squarely at him.

"If that bullet went through that microwave," he said, "it would've got me."

The next incident happened just before 2 a.m. in the parking lot of a derelict shopping center at Crump and Thomas, just a little south of Downtown. According to police, two groups of men exchanged gunfire, hitting multiple vehicles as well as at least two people.

No one in the first car was injured, but those in the second vehicle drove to the Regional Medical Center, police said. A man in the second car died at the hospital. The other person in that car was treated and released before police arrived. No arrests have been made.

Then around 8:30 a.m. Sunday, police responded to another shooting, this one in the 2000 block of Eldridge in North Memphis. Police were still trying to sort out what happened late Sunday, but the suspect told police that he was trying to walk into the Springdale Grocery at 2209 Eldridge when another man tried to rob him. The suspect then pulled a weapon and shot the other man, saying it was self-defense. The injured man was in non-critical condition.

Police have made no arrests in that shooting.