WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — A man accused of shooting his girlfriend in front of their infant son, then shooting into a house full of people, killed himself as officers tried to arrest him at a West Memphis motel Friday afternoon, police said.
Police were at the Extend A Suites on Service Road in West Memphis about 4:30 to arrest Terquarius Pope. Pope was wanted for shooting 19-year-old Lamyrical Perry in the leg Monday, in front of their seven-month-old son. He was also wanted by Jonesboro Police for threatening his other girlfriend and her infant daughter the previous week.
Pope had also reportedly fired a weapon into a residence on Anna Lane early Friday morning, police said. There were eight people inside the residence at the time of this shooting, including the previous victim and the same 7-month old child.
As police moved in to make an arrest, they said Pope was inside the motel room and they were talking to someone through a partially opened door.
Then they heard a gunshot. Another man inside the room then unlocked the door and told officers Pope shot himself.
Pope was taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital in West Memphis where he was pronounced dead. The other man in the room was taken in for questioning.
“Right now it don’t even seem real,” said Perry, his girlfriend who was shot next to their son.
She couldn’t forgive him for it, but didn’t want him to die.
“I lost my dad when I was two. Somebody killed him,” she said. “So, like I didn’t want my son growing up like that. I wanted my son to have his dad in his life.”
She says Pope pulled a gun on her during an argument the day before.
“When he did that, that’s when I broke up with him because I was scared.”
He allegedly came back Monday and went through her phone. That’s when she says he shot and pistol-whipped her.
Perry’s been staying at her aunt’s house on Anna Lane since the shooting.
She says Pope showed up Friday morning, got into the garage and fired several shots through the door, bullets flying feet away from their son.
“I don’t think he knew that our son was sleeping in here,” she said. “If he probably would have known then he wouldn’t have did it.”
She had hoped he’d end up in jail instead of a grave.
“I just wanted him to get help. That was all,” she said. “I just wish everything could have happened a different way.”
