MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Say Peppertree and watch the reaction you get. People who live in the Whitehaven apartment community know things have been bad, and they also know they want better.
“This is real. This is a real war zone, and they need to be shut down,” Amanda Williams said.
She is not talking about a third-world country; Williams is describing the place where she has lived the last two years, Peppertree Apartments.
“It’s very violent, gunshots. I don’t let my child come outside,” she said.
It’s gotten to the point where she carries mace just to walk out her door.
“I have to walk up that dark breezeway every night, use those steps to get to my apartment,” Williams said.
Monday night gunfire had people running. A car was damaged, but no one was hit.
That wasn’t the case last week.
A 2-year-old asleep in her mother’s apartment was shot in the mouth after bullets blasted through a window.
The family of 2-year-old Makayah sent us pictures that show a smiling Makayah before the shooting and Makayah today, as she recovers and faces surgery. Her face is a bit swollen, but her family said she is doing fine under the circumstances.
It’s enough to have other moms on edge.
“You don’t know if the bullets finna come through your house, your window, to protect your child,” another mother who lives in Peppertree said.
District Attorney Amy Weirich said Peppertree was declared a public nuisance and closed a few years ago, but it was allowed to reopen after owners met court requirements.
We tried to talk to Peppertree management about the crime, but they locked the door, closed the windows and refused to come out of the office.
The DA said depending on police calls and investigations, Peppertree could be closed again, but there is no magic number of incidents to meet.
Memphis Police said since February 2014, they have had 430 calls to Peppertree.
It’s why some residents aren’t waiting for the next one.
“I am not doing it. I am leaving,” Williams said.
Over the last two years, there have been two other cases in which kids were shot in Peppertree.
The grandmother of the 2-year-old shot last week said they have moved out of the apartments and won’t be going back.