Police: Father out of hospital after I-240 shooting, 2 children still critical
UPDATE: The family affected by the I-240 shooting has created a GoFundMe page in hopes of helping the four children who were shot recover from their injuries.
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The father of four young children who were left with critical injuries after a road rage shooting two days ago has been released from the hospital, Assistant Police Chief Don Crowe said Thursday.
Two of the four children were “close” to being released from hospitals, Crowe said. Two more children still have very serious injuries. Crowe said they were in “critical but stable” condition.
“The community has to pray for healing and help those families,” Crowe said.
Road rage blamed for I-240 shooting that hurt 4 kids, dad
Crowe said several MPD detectives were staying in touch with the victims’ family on a daily basis.
Two 3-year-old twins, a 2-year-old and an 8-year-old, and their 30-year-old father were taken to a hospital with critical injuries after the shooting on Interstate 240 near Poplar during Tuesday afternoon rush hour.
One of the children was shot five times, another twice in the stomach and another lost two fingers.
“This incident that occurred here this week is totally outrageous. It’s outrageous that a car would be fired upon on the interstate, indiscriminately, that resulted in five people getting wounded including four children,” Crowe said.
Two men praised for helping family shot on interstate: ‘There is still some good in Memphis’
Two Good Samaritans stopped to help the father carry his children to their car and took the family to a nearby hospital. A citizen provided police with a suspect vehicle description and license number, allowing police to track them.
According to a police report, the shooting started when the victim’s car merged onto I-240 but was blocked by an SUV. The occupants in the SUV allegedly pulled up beside the car and opened fire with a rifle.
Two men, 21-year-old Kendrick Ray and 18-year-old Lorenzo Watson are charged with six counts of attempted first-degree murder and numerous other charges. They were held on a $1 million bond Thursday.
This is not Ray’s first run-in with the law. Back in December of 2022, he had an encounter with the MPD Scorpion Unit that was eventually dropped, two days after Tyre Nichols died.
He also pleaded guilty in July of last year to converting a handgun into an automatic weapon. Earlier this month, Ray was accused of carjacking and shooting a woman at a gas station in South Memphis.
I-240 shooting suspect accused of shooting carjacking victim days earlier
“We always want people to be educated and we want people to be aware of what is going on,” Crowe said. “Visit our MPD webpage. On our webpage, we have a whole section that talks about repeat offenders. Visit that.”
WREG searched for “repeat offenders” on MPD’s webpage. The search took us to Chief Davis’s commitment to “Advancing Reimaging Policing” from August 2018.
It offered little explanation about why these violent crimes keep occurring and why MPD is having problems putting a stop to it.
“The officers do get frustrated seeing the same offenders, but they also know it’s their job and they’re glad to do it,” Crowe said.
Crowe says it’s the District Attorney’s job to prosecute the criminals and that, at this point, the best thing the community can do is to work with the police to crack down on crime.
“This was a perfect example of the police and the community, citizens working together. Without that citizen providing us with the license plate number, how long would it take us to identify and capture the suspect?” Crowe said.
Crowe invites the community to join MPD and other city leaders at Melrose High school this Saturday at 8:30 am for the annual Walk Against Gun Violence to keep an open conversation about fighting crime.
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