MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Memphis apartment complex that has been plagued with problems for years just saw even more violence.
Early Wednesday morning, someone shot a 2-year-old girl at the Peppertree Apartments. Memphis Police has detained two people of interest in connection with the shooting.
The girl is the third young child injured in a shooting at the complex in about a year.
Back in June when someone fired shots at police patrolling the place, tenants told us they were tired of the violence and didn’t feel safe there.
“People are still getting robbed,” one tenant said. “I’m talking about broad daylight! We’re still getting robbed.”
Several years ago, Peppertree was declared a public nuisance and shut down, but it was allowed to reopen after owners met a number of court-ordered requirements.
Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich said that could happen again if it’s determined the property is negatively impacting public health, safety and welfare.
“There’s no magic number under the nuisance statute, if you have x number of incidents and it’s a nuisance, but it takes law enforcement making calls for service and doing an investigation,” Weirich said.
Weirich said it is also up to the people who live at Peppertree Apartments to let police know what is happening around them.
“When there are issues at a property, whether it’s Peppertree or anywhere else, we rely on the community to notify law enforcement of issues,” said Weirich.
We wanted to know what owners were doing to keep residents safe, but calls to Tesco Properties, the company that owns the complex, were not returned.
