Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Memphis police looking for a 19 year old man who livestreamed random shootings on facebook.

 

The suspect, 19 year old Ezekiel Kelly. New York Post/Police handout. 

Memphis police are looking for a 19 year old man who livestreamed random shootings on Facebook. New York Post. The suspect filmed himself walking into a store and shooting a random person there. The suspect, 19 year old Ezekiel Kelly, also filmed himself ranting on the camera, mostly unintelligibly. The suspect also said "this shit's for real, no fake" and said "I want justice". The suspect has switched vehicles and is now described as driving a stolen grey SUV, Arkansas plate #AEV63K.

A local news site, Fox 13, has more information on the shooting and is providing live updates.  At least two people have been killed in the attack while the shooter claims he shot at least five.

This is a breaking news story so check the Fox 13 link for new updates. The video the suspect made can be seen below but there is graphic content. As I was writing this, police reported that the suspect was now in police custody after crashing a stolen car. Also, the suspect was also charged with murder, assault and various weapons charges in 2020 and it was unclear why he was out on the streets. 



My Comment:

This shooting rampage comes just days after the murder and kidnapping of Eliza Fletcher, a young mother and billionaire heiress who was out for a jog. That story made international headlines, though it has since faded into the background after the suspect in the case was found to be a multiple felon. The city of Memphis hasn't even had time to recover from that terrible crime before this new one sprung up. 

Some people are saying that we should not repost video of the attack, but I disagree. Indeed, I think it's damn foolish to ban the suspect from social media since his postings and videos could be used to actually catch the suspect. Sure, it's disturbing what he is doing and I don't want people to emulate him, but the suspect is on the run and needs to be caught. And now we won't be able to see any of that information as it is happening, making the job of the police even harder. 

The shooting video is quite disturbing as it shows how quickly something like this could happen. The entire shooting probably took less than five seconds and gave almost no time to react. By the time the victim realized something was going on, he had already been shot. It just shows how quickly these things can happen. 

The suspect seems like he was out of his mind, possibly on drugs. I could only understand about a thirds of what he was saying and none of what I did understand made much sense. It does seem like he puts a particular importance on people thinking what he is doing is real, and not fake. Why someone would want to fake something like this is beyond me, but it does go to show his possible state of mind. 

If there is a larger lesson from this it's that crime is out of control. These kinds of spree killings are getting more common and less explainable. But given the state of the country, I am honestly surprised it doesn't happen more often. There is nothing to gain from this kind of attack other than notoriety, but that seems like what this suspect wanted.  


Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)