A Tennessee father was killed in front of his children after getting caught in the crossfire of a shooting that also left a restaurant owner dead Sunday.
Tedarius Day, 31, was fatally shot inside his vehicle in Memphis as he prepared to take his three kids to a park, Veronica Neely, Day’s mother, said in an online fundraiser. The car was stopped in the parking lot of local eatery Tha Table, where authorities said a confrontation broke out between someone from inside the restaurant and men attempting to steal a car outside.
Neely told CBS affiliate WREG that Day’s children are devastated, and that those involved should face justice.
“I want them to remember everyday the life they took,” she said. “I would love for them to see a picture and have the picture hanging every day in their cell every day of their life.”
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by HuffPost, Memphis police arrived at Tha Table to find Day dead in the driver’s seat of his Chevrolet Cruze with a gunshot wound to the head.
Officers also discovered the restaurant owner, Alfonzo Turner, on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Two men, 20-year-old Dario’n Banks and 22-year-old Michael Shaffer, were later arrested after a car chase involving a white Infiniti that police said was stolen.
According to an arrest report, police found Shaffer in the driver’s seat of the Infiniti, Banks in a passenger seat, and several firearms inside the car, including an AR-15-style rifle, a Glock semiautomatic handgun with a drum magazine, and a “switch” device for converting a semiautomatic handgun to a fully automatic weapon.
Banks told officers that he’d been outside the restaurant with other people who were attempting to break into a car when a man came outside to confront them, according to the affidavit.
Banks said the man fired at them as they were leaving, the document added. Banks and his group then returned to the restaurant and his group continued shooting, the affidavit said, though Banks denied firing any shots personally.
Court records show that Banks and Shaffer were arrested on suspicion of theft and evading arrest, with Banks facing an additional count of possession of a prohibited weapon and two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Day and Turner.
No attorney for Shaffer was listed in the records, but an attorney representing Banks told HuffPost that his client is expected at a Thursday bond hearing and that “there is much work to do on this matter.”
Will Turner, Alfonzo Turner’s brother, told NBC affiliate WMC that his sibling had founded Tha Table to create a welcoming atmosphere and to promote his community.
“[Alfonzo Turner] wanted to be right across from the visitor center so that people who don’t normally come to a restaurant like this, they would see it, be motivated by it they would see that Memphis is not just what they hear,” said Will Turner.
“He wanted this place to be a light not only for him, but he wanted this place to be a life for Memphis, and to showcase our talent as far as food and music.”