MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis Police confirm a man was carjacked at gunpoint in Downtown Memphis early Thursday morning.
This comes just two months after the city implemented new safety strategies on and around Beale Street. However, this happened on a weekday.
“My son is a big guy, and I want this message to get to the parents. Just think if this was your college kid,” said the mother of the victim.
She asked WREG not to identify her.
Around 3:30 a.m., her son, 34, was walking from Beale Street to where he had parked her Mercedes-Benz near Peabody and Second.
Police said that when he got to the car, a man approached him and asked for money.
The victim refused.
The man opened the passenger door and pointed a silver handgun at the victim’s head, forcing him out of the car.
The victim got on the ground, and the suspect stole his wallet.
The suspect took off in the car, which had a cell phone, computer, and a tablet inside.
It has the victim’s mother rethinking downtown safety.
“This has disrupted our family,” she said.
Mayor Jim Strickland said the city is working to prevent crime everywhere, not just in downtown.
“We have made progress, but we have so much further to go. We do have more police officers out on the street than we did when I took over. We’re doing more there. We’re trying to build up the children’s programming so that young people don’t feel like they have to do criminal acts,” Strickland said.
“Please, everybody be on the lookout, and I ask the police do your very best,” the man’s mother said.
The suspect took off in the car going westbound on Peabody Place from Second.
The incident report said the suspect is approximately 23-years-old.
He was wearing a white t-shirt with numbers on the front.
Police have not yet reported any arrests.
