Selise Manuel said her family had always seen red flags in the behavior of her uncle Mavis Christian Jr. He had a history of domestic violence against his wife and kids, and he threatened violence against other family members. 

Manuel, 19, returned home Saturday night, Nov. 18, to the house at 5050 Warrington Road that she shared with her mother Ruby Manuel. She found her mom lying on the ground, dead from gunshot wounds.

She was told later that her sister, niece and aunt had also been killed.

Multiple shooting suspect had history of domestic violence charges

“Our whole life has been flipped upside down,” she said. “We still have family. I have my dad. (My surviving niece) has her granddad. But this is not what we are used to.”

According to Memphis police, Christian allegedly went to three homes Saturday night.

Around 5:43 p.m., three female victims were shot at 3673 Field Lark Drive in Whitehaven. They were Lateisha Bobo, Christian’s other niece; Tori Christian, Bobo’s 13-year-old daughter; and Taylor Logan, Bobo’s 15-year-old daughter.

Lateisha Bobo, 35, and Tori died from their injuries. Taylor was transported to the hospital and has since been released.

About an hour after that shooting, Ruby Manuel, 56, was fatally shot at her house on Warrington.

Then, at 9:22 p.m., Tawanda Christian, Mavis Christian’s wife, was fatally shot at 196 Howard Drive. She was 44.

Mavis Christian’s history of domestic violence included 2004 and 2018 events at his wife’s Howard Drive address. He was sentenced to three years for the 2018 event plus another 16 months for violating conditions of a previous federal conviction. 

Selise Manuel grieves especially for Tawanda Christian’s two children.

“They lost their mother,” Selise Manuel said. “They lost the only parent that’s been there for them 24/7 because my uncle, which is their father, has always been in and out of jail and always been abusive with their mom.

“So their mother was the only person they really had to lean on. And now they lost both of their parents in one day. So it’s really hard on them.”

When Selise Manuel’s grandmother was alive, she was able to keep her son Mavis Christian under control. 

“Once my grandma passed, every interaction with him was a red flag,” Manuel said. “Every time we’d see him, it was a red flag. It was violent.”

““Once my grandma passed, every interaction with him was a red flag. Every time we’d see him, it was a red flag. It was violent.””

Selise Manuel

Selise Manuel remembers her mother Ruby Manuel as a hardworking woman who did everything for her and her family. Ruby Manuel worked as a dental technician at Aspen Dental.

“She was just a great person, a great mother,” Selise Manuel said. “She was very caring. She did everything she could do for me.

“A couple of her co-workers texted me and told me that she was a mentor for them and just a great personality to be around.”

‘Best big sister in the world’

Lateisha Bobo and Tori Christian were sitting in the Field Lark driveway in Southwest Memphis when Mavis Christian showed up. 

Selise Manuel believes the shootings may have stemmed from their refusal to let him stay at the house, which belonged to their grandmother before she died.

“There were two young girls,” she said. “We didn’t want a grown man to live in the house with my sister and her two daughters.”

Manuel said Lateisha Bobo was the “best big sister in the world.”

“We sisters, we’d be there for each other,” she said.

Tori Christian was a student Freedom Preparatory Academy; Taylor Logan is also a ninth grader there.

“Gun violence continues to impact our neighborhoods at unprecedented rates, and it is during difficult times like these that we must pull together to support one another,” Freedom Prep CEO and founder Roblin Webb said in a statement. “This tragic chain of events has already raised many emotions, concerns, and questions from our entire Freedom Prep community, especially our students.”

The school’s chief of external affairs Tiffani Perry said the faculty “will make every effort to help those finding difficulty navigating this situation.”

Freedom Prep will host a balloon release for Tori Christian at its flagship campus, Freedom Prep Middle School at 5132 Jonetta St., Friday, Nov. 24. 

The school is also providing students access to grief counseling services, including “calming/coping” strategy conversations, counselor support, pastoral care and reflection spaces.

‘We’re in this together’

Logan will now live with her grandfather, Selise Manuel’s dad.

“She’s especially sad about her baby sister,” Manuel said. “Whenever we talk about what happened, she always says that she should have ran back for Tori. I told her that the best thing she did was run away from him because it saved her life.”

Selise Manuel said she will continue to take care of her niece to make sure she has a good life.

“I keep telling her that we’re in this together,” Manuel said. “We both lost the closest people to us. So I’m just taking it day by day and trying to make sure that Taylor is OK and taken care of and keep her with a smile on her face if I can.”