MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Two college campuses locked down. City buses stopped running. A baseball stadium halted a game, and frightened residents stayed indoors as a gunman spent hours cruising around Memphis and shooting people, apparently at random.
Authorities said the assailant suspected of killing four people and wounding three livestreamed some of the carnage using his cellphone. He was arrested late Wednesday after crashing a stolen car while fleeing police.
The violence unfolded just a few months after 19-year-old Ezekiel Kelly was released early from a three-year prison sentence for a pair of shootings in 2020. Now he’s charged with first-degree murder.
The bloodshed played out as the city was still reeling from the brutal killing of a jogger who was abducted during her early morning run less than a week earlier.
“This has been a horrific week for the city of Memphis,” Police Director Cerelyn “CJ” Davis said.
Authorities offered no explanation Thursday of a possible motive. Nor did they say how Kelly managed to obtain the gun or guns used in the attacks.
The shootings shut down much of the city, and police warned people to shelter in place. The minor-league Memphis Redbirds cleared the field during a game. Friends and relatives frantically called and texted each other, and TV stations cut into regular programming with updates.
Police said the first victim was killed more than 15 hours before the other shootings occurred.
Just before 1 a.m. Wednesday, at least three witnesses saw Kelly fatally shoot Dewayne Tunstall in the head outside a home in east Memphis, according to a police affidavit. It said Kelly pulled Tunstall to the side, then during their conversation drew a handgun and fired several shots.
Marcus Cash, a close friend and business partner of Tunstall’s, came running after he heard the gunshots from his home. One round pierced the window of his child’s bedroom.
When he saw Tunstall’s body, he laid down in anguish beside the man who had been like a brother. Cash said he was so distraught that police held him as a precaution for several hours to give him time to calm down.
Asked what he told police, Cash said: “You all better catch him before I do.”
The second shooting came hours later at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, when officers found a man dead from multiple gunshot wounds inside a vehicle, according to police. A woman who had been shot in the leg was discovered minutes later, still alive.
More shootings were reported over the…
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