- A spate of deadly shootings over 20 hours sparked a manhunt that shut down part of Memphis.
- A 19-year-old shooting suspect was arrested at around 9.30 p.m. on Wednesday.
- The shooting spree left three people dead and three injured, police say.
The police in Memphis have arrested a 19-year-old suspect after an hours-long manhunt following a spate of deadly shootings across the city.
Memphis authorities identified the suspect as Ezekiel Kelly.
Authorities have accused the suspect of going on a shooting rampage across eight separate crime scenes in the city, during which four people died and three more were injured.
Police chief Cerelyn J. Davis said at a press conference early on Thursday that officers first responded to a shooting at 12.56 a.m., where they found an unnamed man dead at the scene.
According to Davis, at around 4.30 p.m., more shootings started being reported in other parts of the city, which sparked a manhunt. The Memphis Police Department’s Twitter account tracked at least three other shootings during the same period.
The City of Memphis Twitter account also tweeted asking residents to stay home and shelter in place. Fox 13 reporter Kayla Solomon reported that the University of Memphis campus was also locked down after a safety alert was sent regarding a "random shooting suspect."
According to police statements given to The New York Times, a portion of the shootings may have been streamed by the suspect on Facebook Live. NBC News spoke to representatives from Facebook's parent company Meta, who said a video related to the incident was taken down from the platform on Wednesday.
Fox 13 reported on information from the Memphis police that linked the suspect to a shooting at an Autozone store. According to Fox 13, this was where the gunman claimed to have shot five people while streaming part of his attack.
Per the Memphis City police, the suspect was taken into custody at around 9.30 p.m. on Wednesday — about 20 hours after the first shooting. The shelter-in-place order was also lifted at 9.30 p.m., per Fox 13.
The Washington Post reported that the suspect had been charged with first-degree murder. The Memphis Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider early on Thursday.
According to court records for the gunman seen by the Associated Press, the suspect was charged as an adult in February 2020 with attempted first-degree murder and assault, among other offenses. Records seen by the outlet indicate he was sentenced to three years in prison.
According to The Daily Beast, the gunman only served 11 months of the sentence and was released on March 16.
