MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A man is critically injured after he was shot Saturday evening in a cemetery in southwest Memphis.
Police said officers were on the scene of the shooting around 5 p.m. in the 5400 block of Horn Lake Road.
The man was found shot inside New Park Cemetery. He was taken to Regional One Hospital in critical condition.
Memphis Police did not provide any possible suspect information.
One man came to visit his late father when he stumbled upon the crime scene instead.
“It’s the dead,” the man said. “You’ve got to have more respect for the dead.”
The man, who did not want to be identified, said he regularly visits his father buried in the New Park Cemetery with no problem.
“I was actually on the way here, and I seen on my phone that some shooting had took place up here,” he said.
When he tried to visit his father’s burial site Saturday, it was blocked off with crime scene tape.
“It’s other people’s loved ones out here,” he said. “It’s already bad enough that you miss your loved ones and you can’t see them no more, and crazy stuff like this is going on.”
He said it was hard seeing police officers searching for evidence near his father’s grave.
“You’ve got people coming out here to grieve, and you don’t know who just lost their loved one,” he said. “Somebody else could’ve gotten shot.”
The circumstances surrounding the shooting are still under investigation, but despite the reason, it’s a dark reminder for some that gun violence has no boundaries.
“We need to do better in Memphis because it’s getting out of hand,” the visitor to the cemetery said.
If you know anything about Wednesday morning’s armed robbery incident, you are urged to call CrimeStoppers at 901-528-CASH.