MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Video is making its rounds on social media showing the moments leading up to a shooting at a popular Memphis mall.
Now, police have identified one man in the videos as a suspect in the Tuesday evening incident. Marquice Lester, 23, is charged with a felony count of aggravated assault and unlawful possession of a weapon.
Six teenagers were also taken into police custody after the brawl and shooting at Wolfchase Galleria.
The videos and pictures being posted online are shocking for more reasons than one.
“It’s sad,” shopper George Brown said. “You should be able to go into the store and do some shopping without worrying somebody’s going to be attacked or shot.”
“You kind of wonder, ‘Where is there to be safe at in Memphis?’” mall employee Winston Harey said.
But another alarming factor is there are signs this was possibly planned.
“I think that’s a shame that people actually plan to get in trouble or have fights instead of working things out,” shopper Michael Gibbs said.
Social media posts that have since been taken down talk about meeting at the mall to fight, telling other people to show up and insulting those who said they’re not going to.
Related: Shots fired near Wolfchase Galleria, 4 suspects detained
Some posts also referenced past years where there were similar brawls at the mall.
“I was really shocked, even though there have been other incidents in the past, I just kind of went, ‘Ahh,’ while I was watching it on television,” shopper Patsy Bomar said.
Seven people are charged in this latest incident, with Lester being the only adult suspect.
The charges range from assault to disorderly conduct to unlawful possession of a weapon.
Police say Lester and two teenagers were armed.
“Things like that probably happen because there’s no supervision, no adults watching them,” Gibbs said.
Five people got hurt between the stampede and shots fired. They’re all expected to be okay, but shoppers know that may not always be the case.
We reached out to police to see if there’s a way to track these kind of postings on social media to prevent future incidents from happening, but we haven’t yet heard back.
