Kelsey Ott, Luke Jones, and Kristen Holloway, WREG
Shots rang out while people were gathered at a vigil to remember a victim of gunfire.
The shooting happened around 8:15 p.m. at Mississippi Boulevard and St. Paul Avenue, where a vigil was being held for Myneisha Johnson, an 18-year-old who was killed by a stray bullet downtown. Friends were marking the one-year anniversary of her death.
Witnesses say as soon as they started lighting candles, two cars pulled up and started shooting. Witnesses told WREG they heard more than 100 gunshots.
Police said one of the victims is in critical condition and two others are noncritical.
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The night before, three people were injured in a shooting during a candlelight vigil in the parking lot for 18-year-old Myneishia Johnson, who was killed last year in a shooting in downtown Memphis days before she was to graduate from Booker T. Washington High School.
“It was over 50 to 75 shots fired and didn’t nobody die because God was in the midst of this,” Baines said. “That’s why we want to do the Bible study here a day after the shooting to let them know we are not afraid.”
Baines said her sister was one of the three people shot at the vigil.
“She is the godmother of Myneishia,” Baines said about her sister, who was shot in the foot. “She came to pay her respects to her goddaughter and then somebody disrespected everyone at that vigil by shooting.”
Shortly after 8 p.m. Monday, according to a police incident report, a man stood in the middle of Danny Thomas and flagged down officers to alert them about the shooting. When police arrived, they described the scene as “chaotic” with witnesses telling them about multiple suspects. Police immediately called for additional backup units.
When officers arrived they found a 49-year-old woman, Baines’ sister, sitting on the ground with a gunshot wound to her foot. Someone had stopped the bleeding with a tourniquet. She was taken to the Regional Medical Center in noncritical condition and was expected to be released Tuesday.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/crime/2017/05/23/vigil-shooting-stirs-south-memphis-residents-anger/339282001/
