Two fatal victims from Wednesday’sMemphis shooting spreehave been identified.
One of the victims was Allison Parker, a mother of three who worked as a medical assistant at Family Practice Center of West Memphis, Arkansas.
“Our office is grieving the loss of our medical assistant, Allison Parker. She was a victim of the tragic violence in Memphis yesterday,” Dr. Trent Piercewrote on Facebookon Thursday.
He continued, “Please pray for her family and our entire office staff as we try to process this senseless loss.”
Since her passing, aGoFundMe pagehas been created to help raise money for Parker’s children. “She leaves behind three children who also lost their father two years ago,” the fundraiser description tragically read.
The page also revealed that one of her children was with her at the time of the shooting.
As of Friday morning, the page has received 226 donations and raised over $15,000 of their $50,000 goal.
Family Practice Center of West Memphis Facebook
The second identified victim was Dewayne “Amir” Tunstall, an inspiring entrepreneur and dad of two,WMCreported.
Tunstall was visiting his best friend’s house when the suspect,19-year-old Ezekiel Dejuan Kelly, who was there grabbing food, started his shooting spree, the friend said, according to the outlet.
“He ate his food; it was out of the blue!” said Tunstall’s friend Marcus Cash to WMC. According to the outlet, Tunstall was not Kelly’s only shot as Cash’s house is full of bullets and bullet holes too.
On Thursday, the Memphis Police Departmentidentified the suspectas Kelly and said he was apprehended just before 9:30 p.m. local time, over an hour after police issued theirinitial warningabout the individual.
During apress conferenceearly Thursday morning, Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis said that “numerous felony charges” are pending.
The Memphis Police Department did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment but according to Police Chief Davis, authorities responded to a first shooting around 1:00 a.m. local time on Wednesday morning, where Turnstall was found fatally shot in a driveway. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Later, around 4:30 p.m., the shootings continued, Davis said, and a male victim was found inside his vehicle with “multiple gunshot wounds.” He was also pronounced dead at the scene.
Minutes after, police responded to a woman who was shot in the leg and wounded, according to Davis. She was transported to a hospital in “non-critical” condition. Then, shortly before 6:00 p.m., the suspect allegedly entered a store while recording himself on Facebook Live, where he shot and critically wounded a man, Davis continued.
After that incident, Davis detailed that a “concerned citizen” notified police that Kelly was allegedly on Facebook threatening to harm people, which prompted them to launch a city-wide search.
In the following moments, a woman was found shot dead around 7:20 p.m., and Davis said the shooter took her vehicle and fled the scene.
At 8:55 p.m., police then found another woman who had been fatally shot, Davis said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police later found the vehicle and began a high pursuit chase, Davis detailed. Kelly was then taken into custody “without incident” and two weapons were recovered at the scene of his arrest, she added.
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Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland called the tragedy a “senseless murder rampage” during the Thursday morning press conference.
Strickland detailed that Kelly was released from prison less than six months ago, explaining that the suspect had been charged with criminal attempted first-degree murder, but pleaded guilty in April 2021 to a lesser charge of aggravated assault. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but only served 11 months, Strickland said.
“If Mr. Kelly served his full three-year sentence, he would still be in prison today, and four of our fellow citizens would still be alive,” he added.
Police Chief Davis also noted that there are “at least” eight crime scenes, and police are still investigating. “There could potentially be other locations, there could potentially be other damage in other places,” she explained.
It was not immediately clear if Kelly currently has an attorney who could respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
source: people.com
