One 19-year-old Memphis man who stands accused of the killing of four people and then terrorizing the city for hours on end this past Wednesday evening as he went around shooting at people was officially let out of prison after only serving under a year for an attempted murder charge that ended up being reduced by a plea-bargained to just an aggravated assault.
However, after police were able to subdue him in a stolen car, Jim Strickland, the Mayor of Memphis, stated that he should never have been released and on the loose.
“If [the suspect] served his full three-year sentence, he would still be in prison today and four of our fellow citizens would still be alive,” explained Strickland.
Records indicate that the suspect was officially let go on the 16th of March after carrying out a period of just 11 months out of the total three-year sentence. A new law Strickland stood behind that went officially into effect back in July may have allowed the suspect to be locked up.
The horrible spree started just before 1 a.m. with the seemingly random murder of a 24-year-old man who stood in his driveway, stated Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis, who set out the timeline at the news conference in the wake of the arrest late Wednesday. The rampage continued at roughly 4:30 p.m. when police discovered another man who had been shot dead while sitting in his car.
After about an hour and half, the suspect started to live stream himself storming into an AutoZone store, inside which he shot and wounded a man. He then stole a car and killed a woman before driving around the city shooting another two people, including another woman who was killed.
Officials for the City told the residents to stay inside as the horrifying ordeal unfolded. Police claimed that there was a total of eight crime scenes, which included all seven shooting incidents and the carjacking of the vehicle that the suspect eventually crashed, resulting in his capture.
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A Democrat, Strickland received some extreme criticism from various left-wing activists earlier this year for standing behind a “truth in sentencing” bill that made it through the Tennessee General Assembly. The law, which took effect back in July, makes it a requirement that those convicted of certain felony crimes be made to serve the entirety of their sentences with zero chance of any sort of early release.
“I want the young person, if they have a gun, to think for a second before they pull that trigger,” expressed Strickland to Action News back in May. “Because if there’s a swift, severe punishment, they are more likely to have second thoughts in doing it.”