Memphis police: Male victim found fatally shot in Fox Meadows

A male victim was found fatally shot Thursday afternoon at an apartment complex in the Fox Meadows neighborhood of southeast Memphis, the police department said.

Officers responded at 2:38 p.m. to the complex on Venetian Causeway, which is near the intersection of Mount Moriah Road and South Mendenhall Road, the police department said on Twitter.

The victim was found dead and his age and name weren't immediately available, the police department said. The police said a suspect was last seen walking eastbound, wearing a black and red hooded sweatshirt and jeans. 

The police blocked off an area inside the Eden at Watersedge apartments, a large complex off Mendenhall.

Many friends and family members of the victim had come to the area. One woman identified by others as the victim’s sister said she wasn’t ready to talk with a reporter yet. 

Another man said the victim was his cousin but he didn’t want to be identified for fear of retaliation. He said he didn’t know what led to the killing, but believed it must have been personal, and he called it senseless. “He didn’t deserve that.” He also said gun laws need to be tighter, and that young men who kill are showing their own weakness. “These (expletives) are cowards, man.”

He declined to name the slain man, saying he was still hoping at some level that the report that the man had been killed wasn’t true. 

Closer to the crime scene tape, bystander Danny Davis, 37, said, “We got a sad city.”

He said he didn’t know what had happened. 

Moments later, a police officer broke crime scene tape to let a van from the coroner’s office drive away.

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