MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Police with assault rifles surrounded a home in the area of South Parkway and Florida Street on Monday afternoon in an attempt to capture murder suspect Tremaine Wilbourn.
What they didn’t know was he wasn’t there.
According to Bloomfield Baptist Church pastor Rev. Ralph White, Wilbourn was on his way downtown to turn himself in.
With the help of an attorney, White said Wilbourn agreed to stop hiding but only if the two could help guarantee Wilbourn would not get hurt by law enforcement in the process.
“I’m pretty sure he was [nervous] because initially he was ready to go then he said, ‘I want to make sure U.S. Marshals rather than the police,'” White said. “We had to arrange for that.”
According to White, once he and the lawyer alerted Memphis Police and the U.S. Marshals Service that Wilbourn was on his way downtown, agents surrounded his South Memphis neighborhood.
But it was outside the Federal Building at Poplar Avenue and Front Street where other agents caught up with Wilbourn.
Wilbourn was cuffed and walked in with both police and U.S. Marshals by his side.
White has a longtime connection with Wilbourn, and the pastor also happens also to be the chairman of the Citizen Law Enforcement Review Board.