Posted on September 8, 2022

Memphis Police Say 19-Year-Old Arrested After Cruising Around City Shooting

Dima Amro et al., Memphis Commercial Appeal, September 7, 2022

The 19-year-old police say is responsible for several shootings in Memphis Wednesday evening is in custody, bringing to an end a two-plus hour crisis that had police asking people to stay indoors.

Police said around 9:20 p.m. that officers arrested Ezekiel Dejuan Kelly in Whitehaven.

Police had advised people to stay indoors around 7 p.m. while they searched for the suspected shooter.

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Kelly has prior arrests for attempted first-degree murder and reckless endangerment in 2020.

He was sentenced to three years but was released March 16 this year. Police issued a warrant for first-degree murder for Kelly on Wednesday night. Police did not immediately say how many people were injured or killed.

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Facebook videos Kelly posted earlier Wednesday were removed from the platform that night. Kelly’s Instagram account was also taken down Wednesday night.

Memphis Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Louis Brownlee said he heard secondhand reports Kelly hijacked the SUV and injured the person in the car but he can not confirm that is true.

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Amid the search for the suspected shooter, the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) suspended bus and trolley services indefinitely.

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At the intersection of Poplar Avenue and McLean Boulevard, a Commercial Appeal reporter saw a man injured on the sidewalk and being helped into an ambulance, along with police crime scene tape blocking the area outside Midtown Center for Health and Rehabilitation.

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Local residents gathered outside their homes on North Auburndale Street Wednesday evening, near where one of the incidents happened.

As she observed police working behind crime scene tape, Mary Dudley, said she was not surprised that this happened in Memphis.

“Living in Memphis is like living in every episode of Breaking Bad,” Dudley

Dudley said she works downtown and people often ask her “is it safe. What do you think.”

Original Article