A Memphis news crew was robbed at gunpoint late last week, according to the reporter who was on the scene.
“HOW IN THE HOLY HELL YOU ROB THE NEWS CREW: Robbed at Poplar and Highland. You know I’ve had my fair share of stories but DAMN! Took the camera, tripod, and LIVEU,” Fox13 reporter Jeremy Pierre posted on Facebook after the encounter. “One of the dudes even showed me the gun in his waist band.”
“Take a good look at the pics it’s the car the low downers got away in,” he said, attaching photos from the scene on his Facebook page.
Despite the robbery, Pierre shared an optimistic message.
“I STILL LOVE YA MEMPHIS!” he wrote.
The robbery comes amid a backdrop of violence in the city, with two instances of violent crime catching national attention.
Memphis mom and teacher Eliza Fletcher was recently found dead after allegedly being kidnapped and murdered by a man called Cleotha Abston.
Abston, a career criminal, was also linked by DNA to the rape of another Memphis woman called Alicia Franklin, but Franklin’s rape kit had not yet been processed before he allegedly killed Fletcher nearly a year later.
After that incident, a man called Ezekiel Kelly went on a killing rampage, part of which was streamed live on Facebook.
Even Memphis’ Democrat Mayor Jim Strickland has bemoaned the wave of violent crime.
“Last week, I told you about a man who, while driving a car, struck a Memphis police officer on foot, causing him to roll over the hood and be thrown to the ground. He led officers on a high-speed vehicle pursuit and crashed into a citizen’s car. He fled on foot. Officers apprehended him and found him in possession of a handgun. He was given a $15,000 bond,” he said in his weekly newsletter published Friday. “Guess what has happened? He has posted his bond, was released, and is out and about in the Memphis community.”
“This is the number one problem we have on the law enforcement side of trying to prevent crime – too often the judicial system does not keep violent offenders off the street.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
