66-year-old woman killed, child uninjured in vehicle shooting
Two people are facing murder charges after a 66-year-old woman was shot and killed in her car while a 9-yearold child was in the backseat.
Alfonso Kennedy, 23, and Cortez Graham, 30, have been charged with firstdegree murder and criminal attempted first-degree murder.
Memphis police said on Twitter the two were arrested in the case of a shooting Wednesday in the 1300 block of Wabash Avenue, a residential street about two blocks north of Hamilton High School.
An affidavit has only been filed for Kennedy and does not describe Graham’s alleged involvement.
According to the affidavit for Kennedy, officers responded to the shooting call and found 66-year-old Beverly Jacks lying unresponsive in the driver’s seat of her Saturn. She was bleeding from the head and torso and was pronounced dead on the scene.
Police found a 9-year-old child in the backseat unharmed, according to the affidavit.
A witness reportedly told police that the suspects pulled up behind Jacks’ vehicle driving a silver Nissan with tinted windows, the court document said. The front and rear passenger side windows lowered, and two people “leaned out of the vehicle and opened fire on the victim’s vehicle with assault rifles.”
Investigators recovered 25 rifle casings from the scene behind Jacks’ vehicle, according to the affidavit.
The witness gave police two nicknames for the suspects, according to the document, and police were able to identify one of them, “Lil’ Al,” as Kennedy. The affidavit does not specify if the other name given, “Chuck,” was Graham.
Graham was booked into jail at 3:41 a.m. Saturday. No bond has been set. Kennedy was booked at 2:37 p.m. on Friday. His bond was originally set at $20,000 on a domestic violence charge. No bond is listed for the murder charge. Both are scheduled to make court appearances Monday morning.
The affidavit does not provide a suspected motive for the shooting or indicate the extent of the relationship, if any, between the victim, the child and the alleged shooters.
The affidavit noted the shots came from the passenger’s side of the car, but police have not said if they are searching for or have charged a third person alleged to be the driver.
Reach Jennifer Pignolet at jennifer.pignolet@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @JenPignolet.