Alleged serial arsonist arrested, gun violence victims want referenda passed | On the Docket
Memphis police officers responded to multiple small fires, each an arson, and eventually arrested a man they allege was responsible for all four of them.
And in the midst of early voting, families of gun violence victims gathered outside Memphis City Hall Thursday morning to call for Memphians to pass the gun referenda "overwhelmingly."
Here's what was on the docket for the week of Oct. 21
Man arrested in connection to four fires around Memphis
Jamie Shotwell, a 26-year-old Memphis man, was arrested Tuesday in connection to four arsons, according to an affidavit.
Shotwell has been charged with one count of aggravated arson, one count of reckless burning, one count of setting fire to personal property and evading arrest.
According to an affidavit, police were called to a vehicle fire at an AutoZone store along Riverdale about a vehicle that had been set on fire. After that call, they responded to a fire at a gas station.
"...A male Black wearing a beige hoodie bought $1.00 worth of gas and pumped it into a brown bag," the affidavit read. "[The witness] stated the same individual then came back into the store and set the bag on fire and threw the paper bag into the store. Suspect #1 unknown set firewood on fire inside the store."
The fire was put out before officers arrived.
Officers later responded to a call about a bush that had been set on fire at the Hedgerow Apartments at Hedgerow and Shelby Drive. Another fire, a dumpster that was allegedly lit on fire, was reported at a Walgreens along Riverdale.
Officials say that when Shotwell was located, he ran from officers. After he was caught and arrested, the affidavit said Shotwell told them he started the fires.
Police did not report any injuries from the fires.
Families of gun violence victims, activists, elected officials ask for Memphians to 'overwhelmingly' pass gun referenda
Gathered outside Memphis City Hall Thursday morning, families of gun violence victims, activists and elected officials asked for Memphians to "overwhelmingly" pass the gun control referenda that are on the November ballot.
Memphis voters will have the chance to vote for handgun permits, restrictions on assault rifles and the establishment of a red flag law. The referenda, if passed, will not go into effect due to state law prohibiting laws of that nature, but would act as trigger laws if an exception were to be carved out by the state legislature.
Memphis City Councilmembers, when authoring the referenda, said they would also function as highly accurate polls that would display the will of the Memphis community.
"We need to make a very strong statement in support of these referenda," Rep. Justin J. Pearson, a Memphis Democrat, said during the Thursday press conference. "Passing all three, overwhelming across political parties, across race, across so many different ways would make a very strong statement to the leaders in Nashville that this is something that our community wants."
Multiple mothers who have lost children to gun violence and a man who lost his husband to gun violence spoke out in favor of the referenda, saying that simple restrictions to gun access and requiring safe storage could reduce the number of homicides, accidental shootings and thefts in Memphis.
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Many of Memphis' biggest cases will not return to court until mid-November. However, three weeks after partial guilty verdicts were handed down in the Tyre Nichols federal criminal trial, attorneys for the officers charged with beating Nichols were back at 201 Poplar for a criminal court report date.
A trial is yet to be set in the state criminal case, but hearings for all remaining motions and a date for that trial are expected to be set during a Nov. 15 report date. After the report date Thursday, Shelby County Deputy District Attorney Paul Hagerman told reporters a trial would take place after the federal sentencing date.
Some defendants are set to be sentenced at the end of January while others are set for sentencing in February.
Hagerman also said it was "way too early" to discuss the possibility of a plea deal being reached in the state case.
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This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Gun violence victims' families want gun referenda passed in Memphis
