It has been more than two weeks since Ezekiel Kelly allegedly carried out a citywide shooting and carjacking spree in Memphis, which resulted in three people dead and three others injured.

But the shock waves from the seemingly random shootings are still reverberating. 

Kelly, 19, has been charged with one count of first-degree murder. More charges are expected, pending an investigation by the Memphis Police Department. 

Preliminary hearing set for Ezekiel Kelly

His alleged rampage began at 12:56 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 7, with the shooting of a friend, and it continued until he was arrested that evening at 9:28 p.m. In the middle of it all, Kelly also went on Facebook Live as a man was shot in an AutoZone store. 

But, who is Kelly? Why would he choose the path he chose for, not only himself, but also for his alleged victims?

Juvenile records, a longtime girlfriend and a casual acquaintance seem to suggest Kelly was a person who got into trouble as early as middle school, who was exposed to drugs, violence and gangs and who was perhaps dealing with the recent violent losses of both his best friend and his half-brother. 

‘They can’t be talking about the Ezekiel I know’

“The night of the shooting and everything, I had just came home from work,” said Destine Christian, Kelly’s on-and-off girlfriend, during a luncheon at Ridgeway Assembly of God Church. “I had literally just walked in the house, and I was scrolling on Facebook. And I came across a post saying that there was someone going around shooting up Memphis, and they mentioned Zeek Huncho. … But when I first saw it, I was in my head like, they can’t be talking about the Ezekiel I know. That’s not him.”

Christian said Kelly attended Aspire Coleman Elementary School, now called Coleman School, in Raleigh. The two met during the fourth grade when they both attended there. Kelly also attended Raleigh-Egypt High School, she said.

“He was always a sweet individual to me,” she said. “He’s always been the person I can come to talk to about anything, because I didn’t have many people to talk to, including family. So he’s always just been there for me. He’s always given me great advice.”

Over the years, Christian said she witnessed a “major shift” in Kelly’s personality that likely was a result of his life experiences. She witnessed him go from being her childhood sweetheart to a tortured soul.

Christian said Kelly was close with his mother, brother, sister and aunts. She said his father wasn’t at home but didn’t know if he was involved in Kelly’s life. 

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His family often struggled with a lack of money and food, Christian said. Kelly also bounced between his mother’s house in Raleigh and his aunt’s house in East Memphis.

“Do you know how it actually feels to go home and not know where you’re going, where you’re gonna lay your head down, not know how you’re gonna eat for that night, not knowing if you’re going to survive that night?” Christian said. “Many people don’t even know how that feels.”

Before he could finish high school, Kelly got involved with the juvenile justice system. 

From juvenile court to criminal court

In March 2018, when he was 15, Kelly and his friends stole a Toyota Corolla, according to juvenile court records. 

Officers located the vehicle March 12, 2018, on Frayser Boulevard and detained the five individuals inside, including Kelly, who was driving the car. 

According to those same juvenile court records, a male victim was walking home from school two months after the car theft when Kelly and several other individuals allegedly jumped him and stole $20 from him. 

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Kelly and the other co-defendants in the incident assaulted the victim numerous times, striking him in the stomach and face. 

The victim went to the hospital with bruises and injuries to his ribs, knees, face and elbows. He could not walk and was in and out of consciousness, according to the records. 

In those documents, the Juvenile Court magistrate found that Kelly was a “delinquent child,” committing the delinquent acts of a theft of property valued at $2,500-$9,999 and aggravated robbery.

Kelly was put in the custody of the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services and placed in a youth development center. 

It is unclear how long he stayed in detention after he was placed in custody May 11, 2018. But he was out of detention by Feb. 3, 2020, when he allegedly fired shots at an adult and a 13-year-old child outside a house in Frayser. He was 17 at the time. 

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According to court records, a 27-year-old male testified that he was shot in the chest while he was helping his friend move. He was sitting outside his friend’s house with his brother-in-law when a white sedan drove by, stopped and a person inside opened fire. 

There were three people in the car, and they all had guns. The victim testified that he had never met the suspects before but identified them as Black and said one of them was young and had twists in his hair. 

A 13-year-old was also shot in the leg during the incident. He was sitting in the back of a U-Haul truck when he saw the car pull up. 

For the shooting, Kelly was charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder, possession/employment of a firearm during commission of an attempt to commit a dangerous felony and reckless endangerment against society. 

Kelly was transferred to adult criminal court on those charges, and he eventually pleaded guilty only to an aggravated assault charge. 

He was sentenced to three years but spent only 11 months in a correctional facility. He was released in March 2022. 

In addition to the 11 months, Kelly also spent 10 months in pre-trial confinement. It is unclear if, or how long, he was detained in the juvenile system. 

How that night began

On Wednesday, Sept. 7, Dewayne Tunstall, Allison Parker and Richard Clark all lost their lives. Rodolfo Berger and LaKesha McGlathlen were injured; a third injured victim has not been identified.

The first victim in the string of shootings that day, Tunstall, 24, was shot outside the home of his best friend, Marcus Cash, in the Highland Heights area. The two friends and business partners were planning to open a new food truck within a week when Kelly and some of his friends came over unannounced, asking to buy barbecue plates, Cash said. 

Kelly bought and ate two barbecue plates, meanwhile acting very strangely and moving more quickly than normal, Cash said. 

“He was normally speedy, but it was three times worse that night,” Cash said. “All I know is he was moving fast. I wanted to get them fed and get them out. Y’all pulled up unexpected already. One o’clock in the morning? We discussing business plans. These hours, everybody’s laying down.”

Cash said it wasn’t long before Kelly pulled Tunstall to the side of the house and shot him.

A bullet penetrated a window near the spot Cash’s 8-month-old daughter was sleeping.

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Tunstall died at the scene. Kelly and his friends disappeared, Cash said. 

The event came as a shock to Cash, who considered Tunstall his brother and business partner. He said he was a kind-hearted person who would talk to anyone.

The two friends had agreed to start the food truck after Tunstall’s plans to buy a center for autistic children fell through. Tunstall, who Cash said was always trying to help people, was featured in a local news story in January after he offered to pay for a woman’s gas. 

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Tunstall became an important part of Cash’s life when they met six years ago, just a year after Cash’s brother was sent to prison. 

“After a year of me grieving, I met Dewayne,” Cash said. “He reminded me of my brother. … That’s my little twin. … What could a person have done to make you do this?”

Cash said he considered Kelly an acquaintance; he met Kelly through Tunstall in March, shortly after Kelly was released from incarceration for the aggravated assault charge. 

Cash said he and Kelly had met around 10 times before the shooting rampage occurred. 

Cash is also a tattoo artist and he did a tattoo on Kelly’s neck that reads “SVM.” According to Christian, SVM stands for Spring Valley Military, a gang Kelly was affiliated with that is based in North Memphis and the Raleigh-Frayser area.

Christian continues to wonder what Kelly could have been doing from the time Tunstall was shot until the next shooting occurred at 4:35 p.m. at 946 South Parkway E., where a male victim died from a gunshot wound.

“In my head, I was like, what did he do between those hours? How many drugs did he take between those hours?” Christian told The Daily Memphian. 

Brothers in arms

Christian, who spoke with Kelly nearly every day while he was incarcerated for aggravated assault, said Kelly constantly spoke of trying to improve his life. 

She said Kelley told her he was going to move to East Memphis to live with his aunt and get a real job, leaving behind a life of trying to make a quick buck through illegal activity. Yet, when he wanted to speak to anyone else on the outside, he would ask her to call his fellow gang members — not his family. 

“And I get it, because I know those are the people that actually cared about him,” Christian said. “But at the same time, it’s like, well, ‘Why are you not trying to talk to your mom, your brother or your sister?’”

Christian said she did not think Kelly’s alleged behavior the night of the rampage had anything to do with a gang. She attributes anything he may have done to unaddressed mental health and addiction issues.

Kelly reportedly lost his best friend, Dewayne Jones, when three masked men went to his room at Motel 6, 1585 Sycamore View Road, and reportedly shot him with assault rifles on Mon., Aug. 8, of this year. Jones was 24.

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The suspects drove off in a red car with tinted windows. MPD has not yet responded to a request asking if the suspects have been captured.

“One of (the suspects) had a memorial shirt on and things like that, so you could really tell that it was someone who was probably in another gang or something like that,” Christian said. 

Kelly’s older half-brother, Akeem McGowan, was killed in February 2020 at Rivergrove Apartments in Raleigh. He was 21. 

“The past couple months, he probably was like feeling really alone, because I know that with the messages that was posted between him and his friends, that they weren’t really hanging out,” Christian said.

“When you’re at that point in life to where you don’t care, you don’t care about yourself, you don’t care about your family, why would I care about strangers?”

A way to break the cycle? 

Christian works as a youth-engagement specialist for For the Kingdom, a faith-based organization that provides youth advocacy services to children in Raleigh.

According to Torrey Bates, the executive director of For the Kingdom, Kelly’s 14-year-old brother participates in the organization’s after-school services nearly every day.

Bates does not think Kelly received any real intervention while he was a juvenile.

“I’m not sure if there’s anything that could have saved this young man over the last year and not outside of the work that was missed probably a few years ago,” Bates said. 

Bates said he has been trying to help both Christian and Kelly’s brother deal with the emotions brought on by the current situation. 

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“Just being able to see the numbness that comes in a 14-year-old boy who didn’t really quite know how to process what his brother has done, it’s hard to tell whether or not he’s grieving or whether or not he’s proud of the fact that his brother can’t be messed with,” Bates said. 

Christian said she believes community members should regularly reach out to young men, particularly those who may not have stable support systems, to make sure they stay on the right path. 

“Everyone knows at least one young man in their neighborhood they can check up on every day,” Christian said, “make sure he’s doing OK, make sure that he’s doing what he needs to be doing and not what he doesn’t need to be doing.”

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