MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Police have arrested a 19-year-old man and accused him of attacking multiple people looking to buy items off Facebook Marketplace.
All three incidents happened in the parking lot of the Walmart on Winchester Road.
One woman even took matters into her own hands and scared the suspect away.
Police said a man who was Marshun Lewis’s first victim discussed a phone sale on Facebook with Lewis, then met him at the Walmart.
“I’ve done deals,” said the man, who didn’t want to be identified. “They’ve all gone good. Wasn’t my first time doing that.”
He said he saw the phone before handing over the $200, but then things went wrong.
“It was time to swap hands,” the victim said. “I had money in one hand, and he had the phone in his hand, the other hand was empty. The driver pulled off. When he did, he was grabbing me by my throat and dragged me by the car.”
The only thing he said saved him was when his attackers had to swerve and lost their grip.
“It was pretty scary,” he said. “I won’t even try to man up. It was very nerve-racking. I was very startled, if I’m honest.”
The man called police, but they weren’t able to identify the suspect for almost two more weeks, giving him time to allegedly do the same thing to more victims.
He pretended to meet other people to sell a phone, only to flash a gun and rob them of cash instead.
But the third time he tried it, he flashed a gun at a woman, who then took out her own weapon.
She said suspect Marshun Lewis got scared and backed away. She didn’t fire.
“Wow, thank God she had something to protect her then,” Lewis’ neighbor Terrance Adams said. “That’s a scary situation.”
The woman did not want to do an on-camera interview, but said she though Lewis was better off in jail than dead.
WREG went to Lewis’ apartment Tuesday, but no one answered the door. He is in jail on a $125,000 bond for three different crimes.
