Memphis church security guards shoot at Kroger carjacker
Cordova, Tenn. March 12 2018 — A 21-year-old man was arrested after stabbing two people and carjacking a couple before crashing in a Memphis neighborhood in a crime spree that spanned nearly 20 miles, according to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.
SCSO initially said three people had been stabbed because a third victim showed up to a hospital, but deputies later realized it wasn’t connected.
It began just before 11 a.m. Sunday outside the Kroger store at Houston Levee and Macon Road, and ended about 30 minutes later at Southern Avenue and Greer Street.
Investigators haven’t released the suspect’s name but said he stabbed a 17-year-old in the neck with a steak knife as he carried out groceries from Kroger, ran to a nearby McDonalds where he stabbed a woman and then carjacked a couple in the same parking lot.
“It was frantic. Everybody was freaking out, they didn’t know what to do,” said Samantha Johnson, who was studying inside McDonalds when it happened. “Just seeing the look on the victims’ faces was terrifying.”
A Kroger robbery victim: “Memphis is not a safe place… It’s the Wild West out here.”
It’s the latest in a string of violent incidents in the Cordova area in recent weeks, and like several of the other cases, it happened in broad daylight.
“You’re walking out of a Kroger with a couple sacks of groceries, you’re not thinking somebody’s going to run up to you and stab you in the neck,” said Earle Farrell, public information officer for the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office. “We have no motive for why he stabbed these people.”
Investigators said the suspect then nearly ran over a security guard at Hope Presbyterian Church on Walnut Grove Road.
Another security guard shot at him, hitting the car and doing enough damage that it could only reach speeds of about 30 miles per hour.
Police chased the suspect to Southern Avenue and South Greer Street, where he blocked himself into a dead end, crashed trying to escape and was quickly arrested.
Police found the steak knife they believe was used in the attacks inside the car.
People living in the area are fed up with the recent rash of violent crime.
“It doesn’t feel safe anymore,” Johnson said. “This is supposed to be the safest place in Shelby County. I don’t feel safe in my own area. I can’t grocery shop without feeling in danger or do anything. I’m not the only one, can’t be.”
Both victims are said to be doing OK, Farrell said.
The suspect wasn’t hurt in the crash.
WREG
