MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A woman lost her car, then nearly lost her life at a Hickory Hill gas station Tuesday night. Now a man who ran to her aid is facing charges.
It happened at Murphy USA on Hickory Hill Road, near 385.
Surveillance video shows a suspect jump into Bianca Mariki’s Lexus. She left it running and started to walk to the store only to realize she forgot her phone.
“She looked back and before she knew it he (the suspect) was walking to her car and she was trying to beat him back to her car,” her stepdad Ray Jordan says.
He says the suspect took off with Mariki hanging on to a back door. She was dragged away.
“She got one side peeled off with skin and everything,” Jordan says.
John Davenport witnessed everything. He was waiting for his fiancee to get off work. He says his fiancee ran to Mariki’s side after the 30-year-old let go of the door.
“They screaming and hollering,” Davenport said.
He says a group of accomplices in another car started shooting at him and the girls as he rushed over to help them. So, he pulled a gun and shot back.
“What was I supposed to do?” Davenport says.
The suspects took off, and weren’t hit. Problem is, Davenport is a convicted felon and he’s not supposed to have a gun. He got out of prison six months ago for aggravated assault.
“I know I’m a convicted felon. I ain’t supposed to have a firearm but you got to excuse me if I understand how the world is,” Davenport says, “If I didn’t have it they’d be preparing for three funerals.”
The father of five is charged with felony possession of a handgun. He’s due in court next week.
“I wouldn’t take that back for nothing in the world, no matter what happen to me,” Davenport says.
Police are searching for the suspects. Jordan calls Davenport a hero.
“I thank and pray God that he done what he done to help her because she’s still here,” Jordan says, “He saved her life.”
Jordan and his wife will be at Davenport’s court hearing next week. They hope prosecutors and the judge will go easy on him after what he did for their daughter.
