An hours-long shooting rampage in Memphis, Tennesseee, has lead to the arrest of a teenage suspect – Ezekiel Kelly – and the deaths of four people, while three others are injured.
The rampage began on Wednesday morning in Memphis’s Binghampton neighbourhood, and ended in a high speed car chase across the Mississippi-Tennessee border just before 9pm, police said.
Speaking at midnight news conference, Memphis police said the suspect, 19-year-old Mr Kelly, had been apprehended and taken into custody. A stay-at-home alert was also lifted.
Here’s everything you should know:
What happened and where were the shootings?
According to Memphis police chief CJ Davis, the first shooting was reported at 12.56am on Wednesday on Lyndale Avenue, in a northeastern area of the city. Officers located a male victim at the scene who was deceased and police began searching for the suspect.
Later that day, another man was found dead in his vehicle with multiple gun shot wounds, about three miles south of the first shooting near the Cooper-Young area, at 4.38pm..
Police said that victim was also deceased and surveillance video showed the suspect pulling up to the victim’s vehicle in a grey sedan and firing multiple shots. The suspect then fled the gas station on South Parkway E, heading south on College Street.
A woman was then injured in the leg in a shooting two minutes later on Norris Road near I-240, in the south of the city.
Police said the suspect headed east before shooting a man at an AutoZone shop in the 4000 block of Jackson Avenue while livestreaming on Facebook at 5.59pm, in the north of Memphis. That male victim was still in a critical condition on Wednesday night.
In an alert, the Memphis police department said an “armed and dangerous” individual driving an SUV was on the loose following multiple shootings that he had been recording on Facebook Live.
An unconfirmed copy of the AutoZone shooting showed the individual claiming, “This s*** [is] for real,” and firing a gun into the store.
Speaking during the news conference, Ms Davis said police called for assistance from other law enforcement agencies upon learning of the Facebook livestream, during which the suspect allegedly threatened to harm citizens.
Memphis residents were asked to shelter indoors in a statement at about 8pm which said: “UPDATE: the suspect is still at large. If you do not have to be out, stay indoors until this is resolved.”
As the Associated Press reported, buses in the city stopped running and the Memphis Redbirds, a baseball team, cleared their stadium of supporters who left frantically while calling friends and family. The University of Memphis also alerted students.
The suspect continued to carry out shootings and at 7.23pm a woman was shot near Poplar Avenue and North Evergreen Street, in downtown Memphis. Police said Mr Kelly stole her SUV and fled the scene. A male victim was also shot there, and was not critical.
Heading towards the border with Mississippi, the suspect then shot a woman dead on Raines Road, about 11 miles southeast of the previous incident, before heading into the neighbouring state, said police.
At 8.56pm, police in Southaven, Mississippi, respond to a reported carjacking on Stateline Road and Highway 51, where Mr Kelly allegedly stole a second vehicle, a grey Dodge Challenger.
He was spotted two minutes later by Memphis police driving that vehicle northbound on Interstate 55, and a high-speed pursuit ensued which ended with the suspect being taken into custody in southwest Memphis.
Who are the victims?
At this moment, it remains unconfirmed who the victims are, or their ages. It was unclear whether or not the victims – four people dead, three people injured – knew the suspect.
Who is the suspect?
The teenager was released earlier this year from prison after serving 11 months of a three-year sentence for an aggravated assault plea.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland told reporters at an overnight press conference: “If Mr Kelly had served his full three-year sentence he would still be in prison today and four of our fellow citizens would still be alive”.
He added that it was “not acceptable” for the city to be “terrorised” by “the type of violence no-one should have to face. This is no way for us to live”.
It remains unclear if Mr Kelly had a lawyer or had been presented with charges.
