MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Deonte Thompson was shot at the corner of Pershing and Bingham on March 5, 2020 around 7 p.m., and the images and emotional scars from that day are forever etched in his mother’s memory.
Hope Crayton says Deonte was walking down the street with a friend talking on the phone when someone suddenly started shooting.
“He was on a video call FaceTiming with a female, and all of a sudden shots were fired and the person he was walking with was shot first, and then Deonte was shot next,” Crayton said.
Moments later, Crayton said Deonte called her husband.
“The phone kept ringing, Deonte kept calling,” she said. “My husband said ‘Deonte’s calling.’ I told him to answer the phone. When we answered the phone, we didn’t hear anything, so I was thinking it was a pocket dial.”
But it wasn’t. Crayton now knows it was Deonte calling for help. Less than 10 minutes later, Crayton’s neighbors were at her front door.
“We had a knock at the door from two neighbors saying that Deonte has been shot at the corner of Bingham and Pershing, and he’s laying down in the ground,” Crayton said.
Crayton and her husband rushed the scene only to find her son on the ground with a gunshot wound to his body and fighting for his life. They started CPR until the ambulance arrived.
“His eyes were opening and closing, but he wasn’t saying anything,” she said.
Paramedics rushed both victims to the hospital. Crayton and her husband arrived moments later.
“My husband and I was shown to a room, we waited, and a nurse and detective told us that he did not make it,” Crayton said.
Crayton says neighbors told her that Deonte was still trying to get home even after he was shot.
“He was trying to get home. He was crawling to us,” she said. “Some of the neighbors told us that he was crawling trying to get home.”
Crayton also says she thinks some people know more than what they are saying.
“A lot of people that was around him when he first fell know more than what they’re saying, and some are even involved and they know who did it,” she said. “I feel betrayed because a lot of people supposed to be his friend turned their backs on me.”
Memphis Police say suspects got away in a gray four-door Sedan.
If you know who killed Deonte Thompson, you are urged to call Crime Stoppers at (901)-528-CASH. Your tip could help put a dangerous criminal behind bars and $2,000 cash in your pocket.
All calls are confidential.
