MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Sheila Smith is angry, frustrated and heartbroken. “I’m not going to stop fighting until the death of me.”
Memphis Police say her 19-year-old son, DeShannon Smith, was murdered in the Peppertree apartment complex in broad daylight in January 2018.
Sheila says she will stop at nothing to get answers.
“The last breathe that I take will be to get justice for you.”
Homicide detectives say Smith was in an apartment with several people when 20-year-old Deterrio Harrison walked in.
Officers say Smith and Harrison got into an argument, causing Harrison to leave.
That’s when Harrison ambushed Smith when he left the party.
Family members say he was shot twice.
“I got a phone call saying that his body was all over Facebook. He had been murdered,” Sheila said. “When I went and saw my son, he had been into a fight. His face was bruised up, his lip was busted and his fingernails were full of blood. He didn’t even have his shoes.”
His mother says someone went through his pockets and stole the shoes off his feet before anyone called 911.
She says her son was targeted because he’d just gotten a 10,000 dollar settlement check from an auto crash.
“He had no idea that he was walking in danger and his so-called friends were setting him up. The end result is that they took his life.”
Harrison is wanted for second-degree murder, and there is a warrant out for his arrest.
UPDATE, Aug. 20: Harrison is currently behind bars in the Madison County in Jackson, Tennessee. He was arrested on unrelated charges, but will be extradited back to Shelby County to face second-degree murder chargers in connection with the fatal shooting of Deshannon Smith.
