Man accused of shooting at 4 Memphis officers
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - A Cordova man is accused of shooting at a group of Memphis police officers as they wrapped up a traffic stop.
He now faces more than a dozen charges, including four counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Court documents say four Memphis police officers had just wrapped up a traffic stop on I-40 near Faxon on the morning of Aug. 7.
The officers were standing on the shoulder of the highway when someone fired a shot at them.
A police affidavit says officers observed a light-colored SUV speeding away from the scene heading westbound on I-40 toward Little Rock.
Police were able to locate a .40 caliber shell casing and reviewed TDOT cameras, which they say showed an SUV parked across the highway for 20 minutes as officers conducted the traffic stop before it suddenly sped off.
The next day, Shelby County Sheriff’s deputies attempted to stop 31-year-old Calvin Davis for driving recklessly two different times.
In the first incident, a deputy spotted a gray Mercury Mariner stopped in the travel lane at Farm Road and Walnut Grove Road, which caused another driver to nearly rear-end it, an affidavit says.
The vehicle started moving again when the deputy got behind it, but the driver refused to pull over.
The deputy was instructed by a commander to discontinue the pursuit as the driver entered I-240 toward I-40.
About ten minutes later, another deputy spotted the vehicle changing lanes without using a turn signal near I-40 and Whitten Road.
The deputy attempted to pull the vehicle over but once again the driver did not stop, the affidavit says.
The vehicle continued, swerving in and out of traffic, eventually crashing near Highway 64 and I-40.
Deputies arrested the driver, Davis, without further incident.
They say he appeared to be “confused and slow to respond.”
They say they also recovered marijuana from his front pocket and a .40 caliber handgun inside a black bag in the rear of the vehicle.
Deputies said the gun had one round in the chamber and 13 rounds in the magazine.
They said another magazine they found had 14 rounds of ammunition.
But it was not until this past week when Memphis police learned Davis might also be the person who fired at officers on the interstate, noting the “remarkable similarities” between the two SUVs.
Investigators interviewed Davis in jail, where they say he confessed to the crime.
He now faces more than a dozen charges, including four counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Davis is scheduled to undergo a court-ordered mental evaluation on Friday, according to court records.
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