MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A South Memphis man was murdered on his 25th birthday. Police said Terry Figgs was shot outside a home in the Riverside community, which is a gang injunction zone.
Police and city leaders claim their ban on gangs in several neighborhoods reduced crime, but WREG found out several shootings within the past 24 hours occurred in these supposed gang-free zones.
In 2013, the District Attorney’s Office and Memphis Police banned gang members from even talking to each other in public. They promised it would make the community safer.
Last fall, they even showed their work to a group from California.
Several neighbors in Riverside told us at first things did get better, but this year the gangs started popping up and causing problems.
That seems to be the case in other gang injunction zones too.
Early Wednesday morning, two people were sot at Ridgecrest Apartments in Frayser.
Tuesday night, police said a man was murdered and another seriously hurt in a possible gang-related shooting in Binghampton.
WREG asked police for statistics in Riverside to see if there’s been a drop in crime since the zone was activated. We have yet to hear back.
Investigators said as of now, it has not been determined if Wednesday’s murder was gang related.
