MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A man is behind bars after Memphis Police say he carjacked an elderly man in Berclair and then picked up his children in the stolen car.
Around 11 a.m. on Friday, 86-year-old Grady Fletcher was parking at his home when a man with a gun approached him and demanded money. Fletcher had recently cashed a check and gave him what he had, roughly $800.
“He said, ‘I want the car too.’ I just handed him the keys. I didn’t argue with him. I’d rather give him the car than get shot,” he said.
The crook then sped off in his car down the busy Wells Station Road.
Within half an hour, officers say they spotted the stolen car in north Memphis near Looney and Pearce. Police say they tried pulling the driver over, but he stopped the car and ran away.
After a chase, officers arrested the man. He’s been identified as 31-year-old Kadarreus Miller.
“It was all a surprise to me,” Fletcher said.
When the officers went back to the ditched car, they say they found four small children inside of it. All of them are under the age of 8.
It’s not clear when they were picked up, but investigators say one of the children is Miller’s. The other three are his stepchildren.
Miller is now charged with child abuse and neglect along with aggravated robbery and carjacking.
“If he’s found guilty of what he’s done he’ll probably get a bunch of time. I don’t know. I’m not wishing that on him, but he doesn’t want to make doing what he’s doing a lifetime job because somebody will get him,” Fletcher said. He says he’s still shaken up by it and hasn’t gotten his money back.
Miller was given a $125,000 bond.