Alleged robber shot to death on edge of Cooper Young, Memphis police say

No charges will be filed after a man fatally shot an alleged robber near an auto repair service on the edge of the Cooper Young neighborhood Thursday, police said.

The police department said the shooting happened about 10:55 a.m. Discarded medical gloves and blood spatters marked the street in front of EnriQue's Auto Service in the 1000 block of E. Parkway South early Thursday afternoon.

Police had already opened the area to traffic. 

The area where the shooting happened is not far from the Mid-South Coliseum. It's a section of East Parkway that splits off from the main road and soon intersects with Southern Avenue.

Deysi Roblero, 28, said she works in the auto shop with her husband, the owner Edgar Flores. Speaking in Spanish, she said she wasn't present when the shooting happened, but said it's her understanding that a tow truck driver arrived at the business to drop off a vehicle when a man approached him and robbed him.

The tow truck driver ended up shooting the suspected robber in self-defense, she said. She said she doesn't know the driver's name, but said if the driver hadn't been there, the robber might have gone into the business. "He would have come for us," she said.

She also expressed concern that the shooter's family might blame people at the auto repair business for the killing, even though the driver didn't work for that company.

She showed a reporter two photos that she said her husband had taken immediately after the shooting. They showed a young man in what looked like a gray track suit and black baseball cap lying motionless on his back, arms spread wide from his body.

The lower half of the man's body lies in the space between the rear wheels of a large truck, while the upper part of his body extends from the truck's side out in the street. The photos show him with a bloodstain on the left side of his chest and in one picture a small pistol is visible near the right side of his body. The photos were too graphic to publish.

The police department said in a statement Thursday evening that the shooter was cleared.

"Upon further investigation, homicide investigators discovered that the deceased male was armed with a handgun when he approached the shooter and demanded money," police spokeswoman Lt. Karen Rudolph wrote in an email. "The shooter armed himself and shot the robber." 

"All evidence was presented to the District Attorney General's Office and it was determined that no criminal charges will be filed at this time." 

The police department didn't immediately release names of the dead man or the man who shot him.