MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Two people were injured after investigators say a shooting in downtown Memphis Saturday night stemmed from a group trying to steal a car.
We were there as detectives worked to piece together what went down. Police records say they received a shooting call just before 10 p.m.
Initially, we were told one person was injured, but police records show two people were shot.
Two brothers were leaving a restaurant and on their way to their car, a black Infiniti, when they saw a window had been broken out and four men in ski masks attempting to steal it.
They told officers one of the men shot at them, hitting the 23-year-old car owner.
He shot back, and, according to a police report, one of the accused thieves was hit in the knee before the group took off.
We checked the city’s crime tracker map of crimes reported in the last month in the 38103 area code, which includes downtown. There were 390 reports. The majority of them were property crimes while 82 reports were motor vehicle thefts.
Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis recently spoke about crime downtown, telling city council members the department is working to address problems by adding more officers, utilizing mounted patrol, and adding more lighting.
“I have said and will continue to say when you lose your downtown space you lose your city,” said Davis.
We did speak with the family of the victim who was shot in this case. They told us he had surgery this morning and is hospitalized. As for the suspect who was also shot, we have not heard about their condition or if they’re looking at charges.