Facebook Live Shootings Memphis: Police say Ezekiel Kelly is in custody

The 19-year-old police say is responsible for several shootings in Memphis Wednesday evening is in custody, bringing to an end a two-plus hour crisis that had police asking people to stay indoors.

Police said around 9:20 p.m. that officers arrested Ezekiel Dejuan Kelly in Whitehaven. 

Police had advised people to stay indoors around 7 p.m. while they searched for the suspected shooter. 

Southaven Police Department tweeted officers responded to a vehicle theft around 8:53 p.m. at 580 Stateline Rd., Raceway gas station in Southaven. Police said officers immediately learned that Kelly was the suspect, then saturated the area with law enforcement. 

Police confirmed Kelly was in custody after issuing a shelter-in-place alert for an area in Whitehaven. 

Kelly has prior arrests for attempted first-degree murder and reckless endangerment in 2020.

He was sentenced to three years but was released March 16 this year. Police issued a warrant for first-degree murder for Kelly on Wednesday night. Police did not immediately say how many people were injured or killed.

Police cautioned people to look out for Kelly in a gray Toyota with an Arkansas license plate AEV63K, after initially reporting he was driving a Toyota with a red dealer tag and a broken rear window. 

Facebook videos Kelly posted earlier Wednesday were removed from the platform that night. Kelly's Instagram account was also taken down Wednesday night.

Memphis Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Louis Brownlee said he heard secondhand reports Kelly hijacked the SUV and injured the person in the car but he can not confirm that is true.

"The suspect is still at large," police said in a tweet at 8 p.m. "If you do not have to be out, stay indoors until this is resolved."

Amid the search for the suspected shooter, the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) suspended bus and trolley services indefinitely.

"MATA leaders are acting in an abundance of caution and care for the safety of its drivers and riders," the public transit service issued in a press release Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.

MPD said there are reports of the man filming himself shooting and posting the videos to Facebook.

At 7:31 p.m. the University of Memphis alerted the campus to shots fired in the area of Patterson Street and Southern Avenue, the southwest corner of campus. According to the alert, the person "immediately fled" the area.

In an updated alert issued at 8:09 p.m., the U of M said "there is no threat currently at the University," but advised students to follow police advisement and stay inside.

The university locked doors across campus "for general safety" and had officers in the area on patrol.

"All University phones and the LiveSafe app have apparently been overwhelmed by the volume of calls and reports," the U of M wrote in its alert.

At the intersection of Poplar Avenue and McLean Boulevard, a Commercial Appeal reporter saw a man injured on the sidewalk and being helped into an ambulance, along with police crime scene tape blocking the area outside Midtown Center for Health and Rehabilitation.

A Honda Pilot SUV with its windows out was parked in the area.

Police blocked off Poplar Avenue from McLean Boulevard to North Evergreen Street on Wednesday evening.

Local residents gathered outside their homes on North Auburndale Street Wednesday evening, near where one of the incidents happened.

As she observed police working behind crime scene tape, Mary Dudley, said she was not surprised that this happened in Memphis.

“Living in Memphis is like living in every episode of Breaking Bad,” Dudley 

Dudley said she works downtown and people often ask her “is it safe. What do you think.”

This story will be updated.

Dima Amro covers the suburbs for The Commercial Appeal and can be reached at Dima.Amro@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @AmroDima.