WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — Three men have been arrested in connection with a deadly shooting Saturday in West Memphis.
Twin brothers Ladarrell and Cordarell Murray, 31, and Kendall Mays, 26, are each charged with capital murder, aggravated robbery, three counts of terroristic threats and endangering the welfare of a minor.
West Memphis Police Department’s new Violent Crime Suppression Unit (VCSU) captured the men Saturday night at the Westwood Apartments on S. Avalon Street.
Investigators say they’re responsible for a deadly shooting around 10 a.m. Saturday at a house on S. 19th Street, but they haven’t released the victim’s name.
“A lot of people feel unsafe,” said Johnny Kerney, who lives at the apartments where the suspects were arrested.
Police say they caught Ladarrell Murray in the apartment parking lot around 7 p.m., but it took the department’s Special Response Team – and an hours-long standoff – to catch the other two.
WREG spoke to a woman at the apartment where police say the suspects were hiding. She identified herself as the Murray brothers’ cousin, and says she was inside with her children when police threw something into her apartment during the standoff.
“I was scared for my life,” she said. “I don’t know what they threw up in here. I don’t know. They threw something up in here.”
Police confirm they used “tactical measures” to get the suspects to come out.
“They didn’t use tear gas because kids were inside,” Assistant Police Chief Robert Langston said. “They did use tactical measures to encourage them to surrender without placing the children in further danger.”
Around 2 a.m., police say Mays and Cordarell Murray finally surrendered.
“Things are out of control,” Kerney said. “Understand what I mean? It’s out of control everywhere.”
The department’s VSCU was formed last month in an effort to curb the violence after four people were gunned down in less than a week.
“The people that are shooting and causing those kinds of problems in our community. That’s the ones they target every day,” Langston said. “We want to find a way to get those people out of our community.”
Langston says, so far, the program is working.
In a statement Sunday, he said:
“The newly formed Violent Crime Suppression Unit is working just how we hoped it would. They work in a coordinated effort with our Criminal Investigation Division and our crime analyst to quickly resolve these violent acts. We are working to add officers to this unit as we aggressively address violent crime in West Memphis.”
Police say they don’t think anyone else was involved in the murder and don’t expect to make any more arrests.
