Latest news with #MemphisShelbyCrimeCommission
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Yahoo
Memphis mother warns about homemade machine gun that killed her son: ‘Our city is in trouble'
MEMPHIS, Tenn — A mother is sounding the alarm about illegal devices being used to turn Glocks into weapons of war. She suffered the loss of her son because of it. It was January 1, a Saturday afternoon when snow that had blanketed Memphis was starting to melt. Debra Seaton was at her daughter's apartment in Orange Mound when she says some woman tried to fight her. Her son, LaCurtis Waller, saw and tried to intervene. 'You say something to them, and they ready to shoot you,' Seaton said. Within a matter of seconds, she saw a gun. 'I knew this was something powerful. It was just so loud, and it was like pop, pop, pop, everywhere,' she said. 'There were so many people out there. There were people running for their lives. Those people were actually running for their lives. There were children out there. My granddaughter was out there.' The panic soon settled, and the ringing in her ears was then interrupted. 'I heard this young man screaming that Curt was dead,' Seaton said. 'To see your child in the streets, shot and face down. It the snow and the ice. This was murder. Cold-blooded murder.' Memphis Murder Map 2025 Police said one other person was also shot that day. Seaton believes they were hit by a stray bullet. Police said they have issued one warrant in connection to the incident, but are still working to find the person who killed Waller. 'When [witnesses] were talking about it, they were saying that it was a Glock. A Glock with a switch on it,' Seaton said. WREG Investigators have told you about a switch. It's a tiny, illegal device criminals are attaching to their Glock to convert it into a machine gun. Criminals creating their own machine guns with switch Law enforcement continues to call it an emerging threat. They showed us how hard it is to control even for one of their most experienced shooters. Since 2021, the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission says Memphis police seized more than 500 switches. Despite the danger and destruction they pose, those caught with one have only been facing the lowest felony charge at the state level. A bill is now headed to the governor's desk to change that. If signed, it will increase the state penalty to a class C felony. Mother lobbies for tougher punishments for people putting switches on firearms A move one Memphis mother, Janice Walker, lobbied for. She recently told us her son was shot multiple times by a Glock with a switch attached to it. She was forced to say her final goodbye in the hospital's ICU. 'The doctor had to literally pop his heart with her hands to get him going again,' Walker said. 'I put my hand on his chest until he stopped. I had to immediately leave the room, because I could no longer breathe.' Seaton said she saw Walker's story. 'I sympathize with her. I said somebody needs to come together and get something done,' Seaton said. 'Our city is in trouble. We are in trouble.' Seaton believes there must be a call to action. She'd like to see more churches and mentors getting involved and intervening in young people's lives to break the cycle. Otherwise, she said this will keep happening and will keep destroying families. 'They took away a good man. A good kid. A good-hearted kid,' Seaton said. 'The guys in the neighborhood, who were messed up and homeless, he would bring them into my daughter's house, sit them down at the table and feed them.' She said Waller helped everyone. 'He was helping everyone! Even in the midst of his struggles, and he was struggling,' she said. 'Big Curt was the protector of his pride. He protected his grandma. He protected his cousins.' Her protector and loving son was full of love and mercy. 'Let me tell you something. Whoever that was, if they shot him and he lived, you know what he would have did? Later on down the road, he would have forgave him. That's how he was,' Seaton said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Yahoo
Mother lobbies for tougher punishments for people putting switches on firearms
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A mother is speaking out as she tries to encourage lawmakers to stiffen penalties for criminals caught attaching a tiny device to their Glock to make it a machine gun. Janice Walker said her son's shooter did just that — opening fire in the middle of the day and leaving destruction and devastation in a matter of three seconds. It was April 3, 2023, in the middle of the afternoon. 'I got a call at work from my brother who told me to come to his house,' Walker said. 'And then when I get to his house, and the street is taped off. Nothing is clicking inside of my head as to what is going on.' A captain finally told her to go to the hospital. Her son Justin Walker had been shot. 'When the ambulance came to the hospital, he was not breathing. They did not know how long he had been without oxygen,' she said. 'I go to the waiting area with my family. My child is just a little rolling script at the bottom of the screen. That an unidentified male has been shot. You've attempted to reduce his life to not even a full story. That's what this city has turned into.' She said worry started to set in. 'That's when I find out that this is not just one bullet. There were multiple shots,' Walker said. 'One of the shots went into his neck. They say if he survived, he would be paralyzed from the neck down.' Doctors revived him again and again. 'The doctor had to literally pop his heart with her hands to get him going again,' she said. 'They get him to a point where they could not close him all the way up, because there was still some other things that they needed to do, but they get him to a stabilization point. That's when they sent him to the ICU room.' She got to see her son in the ICU. She stayed by his side through the night until the next morning, when doctors told her they didn't think he would survive his injuries. She said her final goodbye. 'I put my hand on his chest until he stopped. I had to immediately leave the room, because I could no longer breathe. My one and only son gone,' Walker said with tears in eyes. 'I'm living through this when I don't even want to. I'm trying to fight so nobody else experiences this.' Shelby County detectives said they found security footage that showed a man park on the street, exchange words with her son, pull out a gun 'equipped with a device known to detectives as a Switch,' and open fire. A switch is a tiny device that turns a Glock into an automatic weapon. Last year, law enforcement showed WREG Investigators why they consider it an emerging threat as they fired 15 rounds in a second. It can fire a thousand rounds per minute, and even in the hands of an expert, it is tough to control. What's even more unnerving, the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission says since 2021, Memphis police have seized over 500 guns with switches. Some cases were turned over to the feds since the switch is illegal under federal law and can come with up to a decade in prison. However, many cases are prosecuted by the state where we found out under Tennessee law, the penalty is a Class E felony, which is the lowest type of felony. Tuesday, the senate judiciary committee discussed two bills that would change that. One would make the possession of a firearm with a switch a Class C felony. The other was filed by TN Senator London Lamar, (D-Memphis). She said her bill would get the state law to mimic the federal law. Sen. Lamar stated between the two bills, change should happen. 'So that they won't have to depend on federal government to hold folks accountable for using these in the commission of a crime,' Sen. Lamar said. 'It's not infringing on anybody's Second Amendment rights. It's already something that's technically illegal in the commission of a crime.' Sen. Lamar invited Walker to speak to senators last week, so they could hear the lives the devices are impacting. 'I am hoping that it reaches their hearts and understand that you won't have very many constituents if they're allowed to continue to do this,' Walker said. The man accused of killing her son is facing a long list of charges, including murder and reckless endangerment. He's out on a $150,000 bond. Deputies said they found a weapon, drugs and a two-year-old child in the car when they arrested him. They say they also found bullets had gone into nearby homes that day, since a switch makes a gun so hard to control. 'I cannot imagine going to work and coming home trying to figure out why are there holes in my wall? What is going on with my garage? Even being the person that was sitting there working from home who witnessed this, who could not sleep for many nights because of this,' Walker said. 'My thought process is what kind of life are you living that this is what you need?' Walker said her son Justin was working on getting his first apartment. His life was coming together. He had so much he wanted to accomplish. He was only 25 years old. 'There was nothing about that said don't invest in him, because he won't be here longer. That's why it hurts the most,' she said. 'I have to keep going, because I cannot reduce his life to a little rolling script at the bottom of a page. He deserved so much more.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
TN Bill proposes exceptions for firearms in restricted zones
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Two pieces of legislation are causing controversy as they move into the next phase, but they still have a long way to go. Senate Bill 441 and House Bill 478 are looking to change the current law surrounding the possession of weapons on properties that prohibit firearms. The bills look to create an exception to the offense of possessing or carrying a firearm into an area where weapons are not permitted. An amendment was made to the bill on Tuesday. Memphis voters say yes to 3 gun control measures 'There was an amendment added by a committee member yesterday. It was a former law enforcement officer. Yeah, that kind of creates a due process,' said Rep. Ed Butler (R), District 41. The proposed legislation means you won't get in trouble if the property owner sees the gun and you leave immediately at their request, or if you put the gun in your car, you won't be fined. 'The amendment improves the situation. But I can see circumstances under which it's going to be very difficult to determine whether someone inadvertently brought a firearm onto the premises, were firearms or prohibited or intentionally did so. So that's going to continue to be a challenge,' said Bill Gibbons, Memphis Shelby Crime Commission. Gibbons believes much more must be ironed out to make sure bad actors aren't taking advantage. 📡 for Memphis and the Mid-South. 📧 and have the latest top stories sent right to your inbox. 'It would apply to hospitals, to restaurants, to various government buildings, city buildings, county buildings and so on,' Gibbons said. The next step is for the bill to go through the full judiciary committee before it reaches the Senate. 'You know, we're just trying not to penalize law abiding citizens that have made mistakes and honest mistakes,' Butler said. The legislation would become effective this summer if enacted. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
