Tim Warren Memorial Fund - Memphis Police Officer Killed in the line of Duty

MEMPHIS, TN -(WMC-TV) - Fallen Memphis Police Officer Timothy Warren's children returned home Tuesday for the first time since losing their dad.

"It's real hectic," said their grandfather, Asa Atkinson, of the toll Warren's murder was having on the family.

Atkinson said Sunday's shooting triggered nearly 48 hours of sleeplessness for the entire family.

"I went to sleep last night at 11:30 for the first time since 6 o'clock Sunday morning," he said.

Family members broke the news to the children a day later, on Independence Day. Warren's son, eight-year-old James, was extremely close to his father, and is not taking the death well.

"James broke down when he walked in the house and his dad wasn't there," Atkinson said.

His grandfather said James climbed onto Warren's motorcycle and had a hard cry. As for four-year-old Jewel, family members believe she may not yet understand that she will never see her father again.

"It hasn't sunk in yet with Jewel," Atkinson said.

Warren's widow spent the day meeting with Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong, along with Memphis Police Association vice president Michael Williams. She also spent a great deal of the day Tuesday at 201 Poplar, filling out paperwork related to her husband's death.

Meanwhile, Atkinson dreads how this profound loss will affect the children, who were the light of their fathers' life.

"It's going to be hard, particularly when they're older," he said.

Tuesday, Atkinson set up the 'Tim Warren Memorial Fund' at Merchants and Farmers Bank in Cordova.

"We're working on this bank account for the kids," he said. "Maybe something to help them through college at some point."

While the fund can never replace their father, Atkinson hopes it will give them a boost now that their father is gone.

The family is also planning to set up funds at First Tennessee and Regions Banks.

Copyright 2011 WMC-TV. All rights reserved.

Elvis The Great Performances - Available August 2nd

The ultimate DVD collection celebrating the life of Elvis Presley returns to the marketplace this summer, boasting over 2 hours of remastered video, new packaging, and never-before-seen interviews with legendary artists such as Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.

The two-disc "Elvis: The Great Performances" brings together classic performances spanning more than 20 years, from Elvis' first televised appearance that shocked a nation to a concert a few weeks before his death on August 16, 1977. Footage mined from TV shows and specials, films and home movies, captures Elvis’ mesmerizing stage presence and irresistible charisma. Of particular interest to Elvis fans are the previously un-released bonus interviews, conducted by producer-director Andrew Solt. Included are rock icons Lewis and Perkins, Sun Records head Sam Phillips, drummer D.J. Fontana, guitarist Scotty Moore, Jordanaires member and backing singer Gordon Stoker, and television host Milton Berle. The bonus material adds more than 30 minutes to the original two-hour production. Also, Jerry Schilling, long-time friend of Elvis, was instrumental in producing and overseeing the set.

"Elvis: The Great Performances"  will be available everywhere on August 2, 2011.

Pre-order now!

Memphis Cop Killer's Parents Speak Out

Parents of Accused Shooter Apologize to Slain Officer’s Family: MyFoxMEMPHIS.com

A 22-year-old Cleveland, Miss., man was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in the Sunday shooting deaths of a Memphis police officer and another man from Mississippi.

Alexander Blaise Haydel, who police say used Army infantry tactics in a plan to kill more police officers, faces two counts of first-degree murder and was being held in Shelby County Jail.

The military tactics, according to police, included going up a flight of stairs to gain the "higher ground" on officers and attempting to use their concern for a downed comrade against them by blowing up two fire extinguishers near the downed officer.

At about 7 p.m. Sunday at the DoubleTree Hotel in Downtown Memphis, Memphis Police officer Timothy Warren, 39, and Arthur Warren, 49, also of Cleveland, were shot to death.

Arthur Warren - shot & killed

A domestic dispute involving Haydel, who had recently married Arthur Warren's former wife, Bobbie, triggered the killings, according to a court affidavit filed Tuesday by Memphis homicide detectives.

In the court document, police investigators describe how they contend Haydel committed the crimes.

Investigators wrote that Haydel bit his wife on the lip, cutting the inside of her mouth, while with a group of family and friends on Beale Street.

Arthur Warren confronted Haydel, sparking a verbal altercation.

Once back at the hotel, Haydel went to two of three vehicles that the group had driven from Cleveland to Memphis for the Independence Day holiday weekend. He collected two handguns and went back in the hotel.

Confronting Arthur Warren on the ninth floor of the hotel, the two men fought and Haydel pulled one of the guns and fatally shot his wife's former husband, police said.

Several police officers responding to a "shots fired" call at the hotel had been told that a man had been shot on the eighth or ninth floor. Several officers using the stairwell exited on the eighth floor while officer Timothy Warren climbed toward the ninth.

Attempting to escape, Haydel encountered the officer in a north stairwell, shooting him in the head, according to initial reports, and killing him.

Haydel then took the officer's gun and two magazines filled with ammunition.

Haydel told investigators that he called on two military tactics learned while serving in the Army infantry.

He went up the stairwell to higher ground, giving him an advantage over officers climbing the stairs.

He also placed two fire extinguishers near officer Warren's body. He planned to shoot the fire extinguishers, hoping they would explode and "... kill everyone in the blast radius," investigators said in the court document.

It was not clear how that plan failed, with the affidavit saying simply that Haydel "was taken into custody" by officers.

Haydel was scheduled to be arraigned today in General Sessions Criminal Court.

State prosecutors had not yet determined whether they will seek the death penalty in Haydel's case, according to Vince Higgins, a spokesman for the Shelby County District Attorney's Office.

In one of the strange twists of the case, Arthur Warren initially planned to stay in Cleveland. He was reluctant to make the trip to Memphis because his former wife and her new husband were in the group, according to Warren's sister, Jerrye Thomas. But he went at the request one of two daughters he had with his former wife, she said.

His sister said she believes Arthur Warren and officer Timothy Warren, originally from Cleveland, were third cousins who may never have met.

Timothy Warren, a married father of an 8-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl, arrived at the hotel driving his personal pickup while on the way to work as an Entertainment District unit officer based at the South Main Station. He joined the police force in July 2003.

He was the first MPD officer killed in the line of duty since officer Marlon Titus, 30, who died in a March 2004 car crash.

Before Sunday, the last on-duty officer fatally wounded by gunfire was Anthony Woods, 35. Responding to a domestic-violence call in August 2003, Woods was shot by a man who then committed suicide with Woods' gun.

Sunday's shootings took place at the hotel with 13,000 spectators gathered in AutoZone Park across Union Avenue for a Redbirds baseball game.

Funeral Services

Visitation for Timothy Warren will be at 4:30 p.m. Thursday for Memphis police; at 5:30 p.m. Thursday for the public. The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Friday at Hope Presbyterian Church, 8500 Walnut Grove. Memphis Funeral Home has charge. Burial will be in New Cleveland (Miss.) Cemetery.

Services were incomplete Tuesday for Arthur Warren, but Cleveland (Miss.) Funeral Home has charge.

© 2011 Memphis Commercial Appeal - Fox Memphis