According to police, the 19-year-old was caught after attacking various crime scenes and killing at least four individuals and injuring many more.
After many tense hours on the run, a live-streaming shooter who terrorised Memphis, shooting several people, and placing the city on lockdown was apprehended Wednesday night. Ezekiel Kelly, 19, was apprehended by police after a mad dash to apprehend him before he killed again, and the shelter in place order was withdrawn.
Ezekiel Kelly arrested in Memphis shooting
The “senseless and awful acts of violence” Kelly perpetrated were revealed by Memphis authorities in a press conference on Thursday morning. Kelly started his rampage early on Wednesday night at 12:56 a.m., setting off a “relentless pursuit” by police.
An anonymous man was fatally shot in his driveway on Glensdale Avenue during the initial shooting. At the scene, he was identified as deceased.
Kelly went on a 20-hour spree through at least eight crime scenes, swapping automobiles, robbing cars, and shooting everyone who stood in his way while inflicting at least four fatalities and at least three injuries.
What happened exactly at Memphis?
At 4:38 p.m., Kelly started shooting once more when police discovered a man victim with several gunshot wounds inside his car. According to the police, CCTV evidence showed Kelly approaching a man in a grey vehicle, shooting multiple shots at him, and then running away to the south.
Officers then responded to a second incident at 4:40 in the afternoon; the victim was a female with a non-critical gunshot wound to the leg. Kelly escaped in a black vehicle.
At around 6 o’clock that evening, Kelly broadcast his actions on Facebook Live as he started shooting inside an Auto Zone. A man with a gunshot wound was found by officers, and after being taken to the hospital in critical condition.
Kelly continued his tirade on Facebook Live at 6:12 o’clock, threatening to hurt citizens. Officers were called to a shooting in North Evergreen at 7:23 p.m.; a woman had been shot, and her grey SUV had been stolen.
Officers were called to a shooting at 7:24 p.m.; the victim was a male who was shot but was not seriously injured when taken to the hospital. Officers discovered a second female victim with gunshot wounds at 8:55 p.m. and pronounced her dead there.
Southaven Police say Kelly took a grey Dodge Challenger and left behind a grey SUV when they went to a second allegation of a carjacking on Highway 51 at 8:56 p.m. The victim wasn’t hurt when this happened.
Police persistently investigating on the Memphis shooting
Numerous felony charges are pending, according to police, and the homicide division is aggressively investigating the crime scene.
The arrest put an end to a horrific incident that saw the University of Memphis lock its doors, the Memphis Redbirds of the minor league stop their game, and public transportation services be suspended.
“Notify!! ARMED AND DANGEROUS,” the police tweeted in response to the incident Residents of the city were instructed to “shelter in place” by Memphis Police Major Karen Rudolph.
Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr. expressed his sympathy to the impacted families and added that “many families were shattered tonight.”
A video clip on social media revealed the exact scene of the Memphis shooting
Kelly, 19, reportedly claimed responsibility for five shootings, though police first did not specify how many or where they thought he had committed them on Wednesday.
The guy is shown in a video footage that has been circulating online screaming and saying, “This crap for real,” before entering an Auto Zone store and shooting a man without provocation. On Wednesday night, a first-degree murder warrant was issued for Kelly, and additional charges are anticipated.
According to court documents, Kelly was sentenced to three years in jail after being indicted in 2020 on charges of attempted murder, weapon possession, and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon.
Police declared Ezekiel Kelly as a criminal
According to the authorities, Kelly was charged with criminal attempted first-degree murder but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of aggravated assault in April 2021. He was given a three-year prison term, although he only spent 11 months there before being freed on March 16—less than six months ago.
The image of Kelly released by the police is consistent with profile pictures on a Facebook page under the name Zeek Huncho, which is full of images of him and other young guys flaunting cash and weapons.
On that page, his mother was the recipient of a post from August 18 that said, “I swear won’t GO witout a fight, I promise.”
People’s reactions and tributes to victims of Memphis shooting
He published a number of earlier messages, including one from 2019 that read: “My home guys turning into bitches, my home girls should carry my casket,” on his Facebook stories in the hours before the shootings.
I might pray, go do a sin, and then go pray again!, read another repost from January 2020.
“I am outraged, I am upset for them, and I am angry for our folks who had to shelter in place for their own safety until this guy was captured,” Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland stated at the press conference early on Thursday morning. We cannot continue to live like this. It is also unacceptable. No one should ever have to experience the kind of violence that our city’s residents did.
In Memphis, where a police officer was shot while on patrol last week and teacher Eliza Fletcher was abducted and slain, the shooting spree marked the end of a particularly violent period. According to local Mary Dudley, “living in Memphis is like living in every episode of Breaking Bad.”
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