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The shooter who terrorized the city of Memphis on Wednesday in a killing spree that began with the killing of a man he knew, according to court records. Ezekiel Kelly, 19, was arrested around 9 p.m. on suspicion of killing four people and wounding three others at eight crime scenes in the Memphis area. The rampage, part of which was streamed live on Facebook, began shortly after midnight on Wednesday and continued into the late evening. The killings appear to be random, but at least the first victim appears to have known Kelly, according to the affidavit.
According to police, officers responded to the first shooting at 12:56 a.m. Wednesday, when a 24-year-old man was found shot in the driveway and pronounced dead at the scene. The affidavit says the victim was there visiting a friend with four other friends when Kelly pulled him aside. “During the conversation, Kelly pulled out his black handgun and fired[d] several shots in the direction of [the victim] and Kelly shot [him] in the head with a black gun,” the document says. “The witnesses are friends of both Kelly and [the victim].” (A rolling stone has chosen to withhold the victim’s name until family can be contacted.) According to court records, Kelly currently faces just one count of first-degree murder so far with an arraignment scheduled for Friday.
Police then responded to three more crime scenes before receiving information that the suspect was live streaming. The second call for shots fired came in late afternoon, around 4:30 p.m., when police found a man dead in a car in another part of town, shot multiple times. Minutes later, a woman was shot in the leg, but she survived.
Around 6 p.m. Tuesday, Kelly live-streamed walking into AutoZone and firing a gun at a man walking through the store. “Look at this shit. I pull over and do shit,” he said before getting out of his car and going inside. “What do these ns say? No fake, no fake. You heard me, this thing is real. The victim at AutoZone was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Minutes later, police received a message that the suspect was on Facebook Live and threatening to hurt people, Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis said during Thursday’s news conference.
Police said Kelly then shot a woman and stole her gray SUV. The carjacking was reported at 7:23 p.m. One minute later, police were called to another shooting that left a man with non-critical injuries.
As of 8 p.m., a reporter from the local NBC affiliate she was fighting back tears while telling viewers to stay inside. “Memphis is tired right now,” said Joyce Peterson of news station WMC. “I’m with all of you… The kidnapping, kidnapping and murder of Eliza Fletcher, the other crimes we’ve had this year leading up to this. It’s hard right now.” Around the same time, police posted an alert for people to be on the lookout for a black man in a blue or gray vehicle “responsible for multiple shootings.”
Just before 9 p.m., police said Kelly shot a woman to death multiple times, then carjacked another person — across the state line, in Mississippi — leaving the driver unharmed. Memphis police spotted Kelly in a suspected stolen car minutes later and arrested him after a high-speed chase.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland also spoke at the news conference, condemning the recent spate of violence in the city, which was rocked in recent days by the kidnapping and murder of jogger Eliza Fletcher. “This is no way to live and it is not acceptable,” he said. “People in our city faced the kind of violence that no one should have to face.”
Kelly was released from prison in March after serving 11 months of a three-year sentence. He was originally charged in 2020 with attempted first-degree murder, criminal possession of a firearm and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of aggravated assault. “If Mr. Kelly had served his entire three-year sentence, he would still be in prison today and four of our fellow citizens would still be alive,” the mayor said.
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