MEMPHIS, Tenn. — “I have no answers. Nothing. All I have is a dead son. That’s the only thing I got,” Tonesha Brown said.
A South Memphis mother felt empty inside Monday after her son was murdered on the streets.
“They took my heart from me. They killed my baby,” Debbie Amos, the victim’s grandmother, said.
Sixteen-year-old D’Anthony Obee was shot on Semmes Street in Orange Mound around 2 a.m. Saturday.
Police said the two guys came out of nowhere, chased and shot Obee.
“My baby died. He got murdered,” Antonette Johnson, Obee’s aunt, described. “They gunned him down like he was a dog in the street. An ant gets more respect than that.”
On Sunday, 45-year-old Richard Thomas was killed on Keltner.
Police said Thomas was gunned down by his girlfriend, 60-year-old Betty Harris.
Officers said she admitted to shooting the man during a fight.
On Friday, police said Steve Taylor was shot several times at the Briar Club Apartment after a fight with Nicole Houston.
She is charged with second-degree murder.
Community leaders are tired of seeing the crime tape in the city.
Some leaders told WREG it was time for people to take ownership of the crime problem.
“Everybody has to own what’s going on in Memphis,” Detric Golden, founder of A-Team Memphis, said. “I think when we point the finger, put it off for somebody else to do. It won’t get solved. We have to own it.”
Memphis Police counted 49 homicides in 2016 compared to 30 killings at this time last year.
“We so tired of our brothers, our sons, our dads, our uncles — we tired of them getting killed and shot in these doggone streets like they’re animals. We are human beings. The Lord put us on this earth for a reason and the people that’s doing this they are abominations. I’m telling you we are tired,” Johnson said.
Obee was a sophomore at East High School.
His funeral will be on Friday at the Paradise Funeral Home in Milwaukee.
Family members said the teen did not have life insurance and are working to raise enough money to bury him.
You can donate to Obee’s funeral expenses on the GoFund Me page.
