Four people were killed and three wounded after a 19-year-old man went on a shooting spree in Memphis, Tennessee, on Wednesday.
The alleged gunman, Ezekiel Kelly, was apprehended after a frantic manhunt that effectively shut down the city, and the teenager is expected to face multiple felony charges when he appears in court.
The rampage, which the authorities said included no fewer than eight crime scenes and crossed into neighboring Mississippi, took place over at least 15 hours.
At around 6pm on Wednesday, Kelly was on Facebook Live when he barged into an AutoZone store and critically wounded a man, police said. This triggered the manhunt and the lockdown as authorities warned of an “armed and dangerous” suspect, advising residents to stay indoors. “If you do not need to be out, please stay home!” the city of Memphis said on Twitter.
The public transit was suspended and the University of Memphis, already reeling from the recent abduction and killing of a woman jogging near the campus, also went into lockdown.
At a press conference early on Thursday morning, the mayor of Memphis, Jim Strickland, condemned the “senseless murder rampage” and said he was “angry for our citizens who had to shelter in place until this suspect was caught”. He added: “This is no way for us to live, and it is not acceptable. The people of our city were confronted with the type of violence no one should have to face.”
Chief Cerelyn Davis of the Memphis police department, who provided a timeline of the violence, said Kelly’s shooting spree started just before 1am on Wednesday, when a 24-year-old man was shot and killed in his driveway.
It is unclear where Kelly was for the next 13 hours or so, but he then allegedly targeted two people around 4.30pm just minutes apart, leaving one man dead after being shot inside his car, and a woman was shot in the leg in hospital.
After the shooting broadcast on Facebook, authorities said that Kelly carjacked and fatally shot a woman. Another person was also carjacked, though uninjured. Two further shootings occurred left another woman dead and one man injured.
Little is known about Kelley or his motive. But in 2020, he was charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder, possession of a firearm and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, according to court records. Kelly’s case was transferred from the juvenile to adult court, where he was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to a lesser charge, aggravated assault. He was released in March after serving 11 months.
The attack came after almost two years of increased gun violence. Tennessee was one of more than two dozen states to pass legislation allowing people aged 21 and over to carry a handgun, in the open or concealed, without a permit.
The bill came into effect on 1 July 2021 and was opposed by law enforcement leaders who worried that eliminating concealed carry restrictions would put more officers at risk of being shot, the Tennessean reported.
Reuters contributed to this report
