Deadly shooting leaves downtown Memphis community demanding help

Jul 13, 2023

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A downtown Memphis shooting has left the surrounding community scared and in a state of shock.

Memphis Police said this all happened around 3 a.m. Three people were sent to nearby hospitals with gunshot wounds.

One woman was transported in critical condition after being found at Pontotoc Avenue and Main Street, according to MPD. She was later pronounced dead, according to MPD.

A man was taken in critical condition after being found Vance Avenue and Main Street, according to MPD.

A woman was taken in critical condition after being found at Front Street and Madison Avenue.

The incident took place two weeks after a mass shooting injured eight in the city's largest entertainment district. This has Memphians like Adam David concerned.

“It’s too much and it’s escalating,” said David, who has lived downtown for years.

David tells ABC24 he has enjoyed his neighborhood since he moved there, however the past few months have been worrying.

In April, he witnessed a shooting on Beale Street in broad daylight, when someone shot a local vendor.

Sunday afternoon, David saw the damage from the latest shooting downtown, a trend he is hoping to see addressed.

“The evidence is what happened on Peabody a couple weeks ago, what happened on Main Street last night…Something needs to be done,” said David.

The mass shooting on Peabody and BB King prompted the Downtown Memphis Commission and Memphis Police to quickly plan and launch a new downtown safety plan. Numbers indicate a positive result so far according to the Memphis Public Safety Data Hub.

Only four crimes were reported each weekend since the plan launched compared to 16 reports during the weekend the mass shooting took place.

However, people like Brittany Hopkins, a server at The Green Beetle on Main Street, say the new plan has not slowed down crime in other downtown areas, harming business, customers, and the local economy.

“It’s kind of just depleted everything,” said Hopkins, “Nobody feels safe coming down here, so past seven o’clock everyone’s gone because every story you hear is someone getting shot.”

Now people are asking city leaders to expand the scope of the safety plan, and bring the resources from Beale Street to the other parts of Downtown.

“The speed bumps they’re putting in down there, why not put it all the way through here.“ said Hopkins, "This is the weekend, people are out and about, they don’t even feel safe crossing the road half the time, so really I feel everything that they’re doing on Beale Street should just be expanded all the way through.”

At the moment the incident is still under investigation, however MPD believes it was a targeted attack. Anyone with information is asked to call Crimestoppers at 901-528-CASH.