MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A night of terror in Shelby Farms has launched an investigation by police after a mother says someone trailed her daughter’s vehicle and fired dozens of bullets at her.
The woman’s daughter and two friends in the car made it out safely Thursday, but only after jumping out of the minivan on Walnut Grove and scrambling through a pitch-black open field just after 1 in the morning.
The mother, who didn’t want to be identified, says a bullet hole in the window on the driver’s side of the car shows that the shooters were aiming to kill.
“They were trying to kill them basically,” she said. “My daughter couldn’t rest last night, just repeating in her mind that she had to dodge bullets.”
The owner of the vehicle lives in Cordova and was trying to get home.
Police say before there was gunfire in East Memphis there was a fight at a club in South Memphis.
The mother said a group of girls who had been fighting with her daughter for two years trailed them from the club all the way to Walnut Grove, where the shooting began.
“Nothing can be that serious to try to take my daughter’s life,” she said.
The family believes the shooting was gang-related.
Police have not arrested anyone yet, but they say the victims gave them some names of possible suspects, and they are checking those individuals out.
Regardless of why it started, the mother says she just wants it to stop, and called on investigators to step it up.
“Something has to be done seriously today. There’s no waiting until tomorrow.”