MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Michelle Collins knows about life and death. It’s her job. Collins is a 911 emergency response operator for the Memphis Police Department, and she handles scores of emergency calls every day.
However, there was one call last May, answered by another dispatcher on Collin’s shift, that would not only be personal, but it would turn into heartbreak.
“We have two people shot, one, we got one lying on the floor, gunshot to the back and one to the ankle, we are working her now…”, as heard over the dispatch that fateful night.
One of those victims was a fun-loving, carefree teenager with a big heart, 15-year-old Ja’Kobe White. He was Michelle Collins’ son.
”He did this work in school and never gave me any problems; he wasn’t in the streets, none of that,” Collins said.
Collins told us that night, Ja’Kobe was scheduled to pick her up from work just before 8 pm.
Plans changed when he met a girl on social media and went to meet her on Masterson St in Westwood.
Collins says Ja’Kobe and the young woman were sitting in her truck, when suddenly someone pulled up and started shooting.
“As they were approaching my vehicle, they started shooting,” Collins told us. “Someone on the passenger side was shooting, someone sitting in the back seat was shooting, I don’t know if one of those people had two guns but there were three different size bullets in my truck.”
“Kobe got hit in the chest and in the neck,” she said.
By the time Collins found out about the shooting and made it to the scene, Ja’Kobe had already taken his last breath. She believes her son was in the wrong place at the wrong time — caught in the middle of someone else’s feud.
“I wish your family could feel the same pain that I’m feeling that I’m going through of losing a child,” Collins said. “He didn’t deserve it and I’ll be glad when his killers are caught.”
Officers said the shooters got away in a black 4-door sedan.
If you know who killed Ja’Kobe White, you are urged to call CrimeStoppers at (901) 528-CASH, your call could put a dangerous criminal behind bars and 2 thousand dollars cash in your pocket, remember all calls are confidential.
