Homicide suspect arrested after police chase in Memphis, officials say

FOX13 Memphis Reporter

Police scene at Ridgeway Road and Belle Forest Drive in Memphis on Monday, Aug. 28, 2023.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - A police chase ended just as children were getting out of school on Monday afternoon, forcing many of them to walk right by a crime scene on their way home.

This happened outside a church near the corner of Ridgeway Road and Belle Forest Drive.

According to Memphis Police Department (MPD), officers were chasing 21-year-old Keishun Smith, accused of first-degree murder, on Monday afternoon.

The chase ended after Smith allegedly crashed his car at Ridgeway Assembly of God, just across the street from Belle Forest Community School.

According to parents, the school was briefly placed on lockdown as officers and deputies worked the scene.

“Southbound on I-240 approaching Poplar,” police chatter of the chase said. “Speed’s 100, Traffic moderate.”

Police scanner chatter described the chase from Poplar Avenue and I-240 to Mount Moriah and I-240.

“Threw a gun out at the exit ramp, out the left window,” an officer could be heard saying.

At I-240 and Mount Moriah, officers could be seen searching through the grass on the side of the exit ramp.

At around 2 p.m., the chase ended on Ridgeway.

“MPD has the subject,” an officer said over the radio.

The crash crunched the hood of the suspect’s car and deployed the airbags.

Witnesses said Smith got out of the crashed car and ran, the officers tackled him. They described watching squad cars and a helicopter chasing him before the arrest.

“I was in the barber chair right up here on the corner and heard a lot of police cars,” Lewis McLean, who watched part of the chase, said. “We looked out. You know, there was a mirror, and we saw all the cars chasing somebody.”

Paramedics loaded Smith into an ambulance just before class was dismissed at the nearby school. Students walked home while investigators kept working the scene just feet away from them.

McLean said seeing the scene unfold so close to his home was disappointing, but not surprising.

“It’s sad, the way our city has gotten,” he said. “Another typical day in Memphis, Tennessee.”

Records show that Smith faces 11 charges, including first-degree murder, criminal attempt first-degree murder, intentionally evading arrest in a vehicle, reckless driving, four counts of reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon and use of firearm in commission of felony.

RELATED: Man dead, another injured after shooting in Northeast Memphis, police say

He is also accused in a shooting on Tangle Oaks Drive in Northeast Memphis on Sunday night that left one man dead and another injured, police said.

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