Alleged shooter is freed
DA drops murder charge
A Memphis teen spent 36 days, including his 18th birthday, in jail before prosecutors agreed to drop attempted f irst- degree murder charges against him.
“It’s a great day when the system works,” the youth’s attorney, Elbert Edwards, said. “He was absolutely thrilled. He did not think he was going to be home for the holidays.”
Police arrested him on Oct. 15, the day before his birthday, on charges that he fired into a crowd, shooting April Tibbs in the head in front of her boyfriend and son in front of a house at the corner of Balfour Street and Baldwin Avenue.
Before firing five shots on Oct. 11, the gunman had shouted a warning for anyone who wasn’t a Vice Lords gang member to leave, the victim’s son told police.
The eyewitness initially pulled up a photo of the teen on Facebook and pointed to him as the shooter, police allege in an affidavit. It is unclear how the victim’s son, who doesn’t know the minor, discovered the Facebook photo.
Investigators questioned the juvenile, whom they noted, “denied being on the scene of the shooting” in the Frayser area.
Edwards said his client isn’t in a gang, wasn’t in the area at the time of the crime and doesn’t know anyone who was there.
Prosecutors filed a notice in Shelby County Juvenile Court that they would push to transfer the defendant to adult court on the felony charge. A transfer hearing was scheduled for Friday.
But Edwards lobbied for his client’s release Wednesday, saying, “Let’s get him outta here.”
He pointed to a prior court hearing where the witness testified that the defendant didn’t look as tall as the shooter. Edwards also said his client wears glasses, but that wasn’t part of the witness’s description.
Prosecutors agreed to dismiss the charges and Magistrate David Walker ordered the teen’s release, prompting the youth to tear up. The charges were dropped “without prejudice,” which means that
if prosecutors and police discover new evidence against the youth, he can be rearrested.
Three days after the minor was arrested, police also charged then19-year- old Demetrius Ware, a neighbor of the victim, with attempted f irst- degree murder in the case. The victim’s son told investigators he saw Ware and four guys walking from Ware’s house to the end of the victim’s driveway before the shooting, with one of the males pulling the gun and shooting before all of them ran away.
“Defendant Demetrius Ware freely gave a statement advising that the shooter came to his house prior to going” to the victim’s driveway, according to a police affidavit, which didn’t list the name of the alleged shooter.
Ware, who turned 20 Friday, remains jailed on a $250,000 bond. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 3.
On the teen’s Friday post on his Facebook page, he said it felt good to be home. One of his followers posted that he needed to choose his friends more carefully and he agreed.
A day before his arrest, he had posted a message to “free” his friend, Derek Cunningham, 15, a Hoover Street Crips member, who remains jailed on murder charges in the Oct. 4 fatal robbery of a Piperton contractor in Parkway Village.