Correction: Memphis Police on Monday revised their original information on the location of shootings and number of victims. Updated information is below.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A 19-year-old mother is among eight people shot across the city in a span of less than four hours overnight.
Police say the violence began around 2 a.m. Two men were shot at the Z Market convenience store on Perkins Road.
Then around 3:30 a.m., police say five people were shot inside the Diamonds of Memphis strip club on East Brooks Road.
A 19-year-old mother, Jermeisha Nance, was killed.
“I got a call from my mom about 4:30. I thought I was dreaming. And she said, ‘I think Jermeisha has been killed,'” her father, Keland Nance, said. “And as I started getting an overload of phone calls, it was true.”
Nance has spent his life trying to prevent violence in the city as part of the GRASSY program (Gang Resistance for Saving Society’s Youth) with Shelby County Schools, which is aimed at keeping kids out of gangs.
“It’s tragic that I have to live with the fact that she’s no longer here for violence that I pretty much talk to high school students about every day,” he said. “She just got caught up with the wrong kind of people. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and I just wish she would have — I wish she wouldn’t have came to the club last night.”
Nance says Jermeisha leaves behind a 3-year-old daughter.
“She has a lot of love and she’s gonna need it, because like I said, it’s rough,” he said.
Around 5 a.m., another man was shot at Fourth and Beale Street.
Police say that shooting stemmed from an argument between the victim and a man who had been thrown out of Jerry Lee Lewis’ Café and Honky Tonk.
Nance is now left questioning how guns ended up inside a strip club in the first place.
“I never would have thought I would be the one on the news screen sharing my piece about my child in a shooting,” he said. “Not in a million years I would have thought this would happen.”
But through his grief, he is vowing to continue his campaign against violence.
“I’ll utilize it as a tool in her remembrance to let people know to stop the violence,” he said. “To, you know, think before you pull the trigger.”
Timeline of Sunday morning shootings
- 2:40am – 2903 S. Perkins Road (Z Market)
- 2 male shooting victims were taken by private vehicle to ROH
- 1 critical, 1 non-critical
- No suspect description
- 3:39am – 2080 E. Brooks (Diamonds of Memphis)
- Shots were fired inside the club
- Officers located 1 deceased female
- 2 male victims were located at ROH (both critical)
- 1 male at Methodist S. (non-critical)
- 1 additional victim (man) arrived at Baptist E. by private vehicle (noncritical)
- The relationship between the shooter(s) and the victims is undetermined
- 5:03am – 4th St. & Beale
- 1 shooting victim at ROH
- The shooting stemmed from an argument between the victim and a male who was thrown out of Jerry Jee Lewis’ Café and Honky Tonk
- The shooter(s) fled in a silver Chevy Cobalt
