MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Hickory Hill gas station marked the spot where this year’s 85th homicide victim was found in Memphis.
Neighbors were at a loss for words after police found a man shot and lying on the ground at 3:30 a.m. off of Ridgeway.
That was just one of four shootings over the weekend that left two people dead and five others injured.
Community leader Frank Gottie hit the streets to tell people to put the guns down after learning another man was killed Saturday on Kimball Avenue in Orange Mound.
“It’s dangerous out here. It’s not promised for no one to make it home,” Gottie told WREG.
Three people went to the hospital instead of their homes early Sunday morning after shots rang out near the University of Memphis.
“It was like a pow, pow, pow. Something like that you know,” one student recalled.
A woman and two men were gunned down in a parking lot just steps away from a police station.
Kayla Joyner said, “I called my parents right after it happened and they were like ‘OK. Well, just lock the door and go inside.'”
Shots also rang out in North Memphis just before lunchtime on Sunday.
“I heard a few shot so I just went on turned around and went back home,” Jebori Thomas said.
Some people were too scared to leave their homes and go to church after officers said two men were shot at Pope and Chelsea.
“All of this gang bang and we tough and we tougher — that’s what’s causing it. Facebook and stuff, sir — that’s what keeps these fights going,” Charlotte Cobb said. “It’s not the church, it’s not the pastors. These people in this neighborhood doing all they can.”
Community leaders are calling on city leaders to do more to put a stop to crime in Memphis.
“They got to get down with the streets. They got to get in touch with these streets,” Gottie said. “You can’t do nothing at a desk and you don’t even know what’s going on outside your window.”
If you know anything that may aid police in their investigations, call 901-528-CASH.
