MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Another close call with a gun on Interstate 240 has one Mid-South mom asking if it’s safe to drive her kids anywhere.
Troopers said they were going to be out doing extra patrols for this, but for one mom, it didn’t make a difference.
“My five-year-old, she tells everybody, ‘Mommy had a gun pulled on her,’ so she knows,” Jerrilynn Nolan said. “She was terrified.”
Nolan, who’s also six months pregnant, drives the 240 loop every day to get to work in Cordova. She knows it like clockwork, but when she was on her way home this week, something frightening happened.
“There was a car behind me. I noticed they were doing the fishtail,” she said. “I couldn’t go any faster because obviously there was cars in front of me.”
She says the car tried to get around her on Walnut Grove, but it couldn’t. Then, as they got on the interstate, it sped up to her.
She can’t forget what happened next.
“I just looked over and saw a gun,” she said.
Her two kids were in the car with her, a five-year-old and an 18-month-old.
“He pointed it. I saw him yelling stuff. I couldn’t make out what it was. I saw my life,” she said.
She says she called 911 and stayed on the phone until she saw the car get off at Perkins.
Since then, she’s felt unsafe all the time.
“I drive an hour to work every day. In that hour, all I’m thinking is, ‘Is my life gonna end today with a gun?'” she said. “You should be able to walk or drive around with your kids. It makes me not wanna take them anywhere anymore.”
She said the incident also traumatized her older daughter.
“My five-year-old, she tells everybody, ‘Mommy had a gun pulled on her,’ so she knows,” she said. “She was terrified.”
In fact, she’s not alone. WREG has covered nearly 10 of these incidents in the last month. Some involved shots fired, others were people flashing guns in a fit of road rage.
Just last month, WREG covered a shooting on 240 near the same exit. And road rage threats seem to be escalating — so much so, the Highway Patrol is taking action and speaking out.
“Normally when somebody’s driving aggressively they’ve got something on their mind, they’re trying to get somewhere,” said Capt. Jimmie Johnson with Tennessee Highway Patrol.
That’s why troopers say not to honk.
And after this experience, Nolan has some advice too.
“Just think about your actions. Pull over if you’re mad,” she said.
Because as she explained, you could be causing a lifetime of trauma.
Nolan says she gave dispatch the plate numbers for the car that threatened her, but police told her the dispatcher didn’t write down the whole number. An investigator told her they’re going to have to get the plate number from the recording, which could take longer.