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Teens' backyard target practice led to death of Fred's employee at Fox Meadows home, say police

Daniel Connolly
Memphis Commercial Appeal
Marquis Stanford (left) and Keondria Williams

A bullet from a group of teenagers doing target practice in a backyard flew through the window of a nearby house and killed a longtime Fred's employee inside, according to a police affidavit.

Marquis Stanford, 19, Keondria Williams, 18, a 16-year-old boy and a 14-year-old boy have all been charged with reckless homicide in the death of 70-year-old James Caffey.

The teens have also been charged with unlawful possession of a weapon in the fatal shooting, Memphis police spokesman Sgt. Louis Brownlee said in an email Thursday. 

The shooting happened in the 5000 block of Elmhurst, which is near Mount Moriah Road, police said.

Caffey was found dead inside his house, shot in the right side of his body, according to an arrest affidavit. Investigators found a bullet hole in a rear window and followed the trajectory to a house on Cottonwood, where they found more evidence of gunfire, the affidavit says.

The house on Cottonwood is directly behind the victim's house.

Five people were detained and brought to the homicide bureau, and four of them gave statements saying that on the fourth of July, they were target practicing in the backyard on Cottonwood firing shots in the direction of the victim's house, the arrest affidavit says.

Caffey worked at Fred's corporate headquarters in Memphis, a company representative said Thursday morning. 

"We're very saddened by the tragic news of his death," said Mary Lou Gardner, executive vice president of merchandising and marketing for the company. "He was a very valued member of the Fred's Pharmacy family and he's going to be missed by all of us."

She said he worked in the store's merchandising organization, that he was one of her employees and that she knew him personally.

His death was discovered after he didn't come to work on Wednesday and Fred's employees went to check on him, she said.

Fred's is a Memphis-based company which operates more than 600 pharmacies and general merchandise stores, most of them in the southeast.

Staff reporter Yolanda Jones contributed to this story.