One month after a fatal shooting which ironically occurred outside of a gun violence prevention meeting in Memphis, Tenn., CrimeStoppers announced a $50,000 reward offer “to anyone who helps identify one or more people involved,” according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
The shooting left one man dead and five others wounded. The victim was identified as 22-year-old Matthew Williams, according to WREG News.
The April 9 meeting organized by Memphis Allies, a group whose goal is to bring together community groups and resources “to turn our most dangerous places into safe neighborhoods where families and businesses can thrive and children can grow up to reach their full potential as adults,” according to its website.
Instead, the April meeting produced one more victim.
According to the Commercial Appeal, this is one of the largest rewards ever offered by CrimeStoppers. The newspaper quoted CrimeStoppers Director David Wayne Brown, who acknowledged, “The Memphis Police Department’s investigators need the public’s help. We are sure there are people with knowledge of this crime. We hope this award amount will bring someone forward to contact us. Every call or text is guaranteed anonymous.”
Donations to the CrimeStoppers program have been “coming in ever since” the shooting. That it occurred at a meeting of a group dedicated to reducing gun-related violence gives the incident a bizarre nature.
Police were quick to declare the shooting an “isolated” incident. But is it?
According to the Memphis Allies website, “Since 2019, homicides in Memphis have gone up 81%. In 2022, a life was taken every 29 hours; 302 homicides; 19 children killed. So far in 2023, homicides are up more than 30 percent over last year’s numbers. We must come together to address this crisis.”
There was no data for 2024, but according to a Fox News report, homicides declined significantly last year in the city.
WREG News said the city posted 296 homicides last year, which was down from 397 logged in 2023. But there was an interesting caveat. The WREG report stated, “Of those, 242 were considered murders, down from 341 last year.”
