Police Officer Shot & Killed @ Memphis Double Tree Hotel Last Night

Police Officer Shot and Killed Downtown: MyFoxMEMPHIS.com

Two people — including a Memphis Police officer — were shot and killed in Downtown’s DoubleTree Hotel Sunday evening, victims of a domestic dispute that exploded into an armed confrontation.

Officer Timothy Warren was on duty and responding to a call when he was shot and killed at the hotel at 185 Union, at the intersection of Third Street, around 7 p.m., shortly after thousands of spectators had filed into AutoZone Park across the street for the Class AAA Memphis Redbirds game.

Warren was in the stairwell when the suspect stepped out from a doorway connecting to a floor and shot him in the head.

Warren, who joined the force in July 2003, was rushed to the Regional Medical Center at Memphis but was later pronounced dead.

“This is a very tragic situation. Any time an officer is ... harmed, it’s tragic,” Memphis Mayor A C Wharton said from The Med. “We want the officers and their families to know we understand the harm they face everyday.”

Said MPD Director Toney Armstrong, who began his tenure April 15: “Even if you have been the director 20 years, this is the one phone call that you hope you never have to get. It’s the one ... you hope you never have to handle. ... We’re grieving. This is like losing a family member. We’ll pull together and we’ll pull each other through.”

Warren’s wife was escorted by law enforcement personnel from Mississippi to The Med late Sunday. The officer also had two small children.

It appears that the armed suspect went to the hotel in search of a woman.

MPD sources report that the suspect was either married to the woman, or had been married to her. The second fatality, identified as a male, appears to have been involved with the domestic situation somehow.

An MPD release sent at 12:45 a.m. Monday reads: "The preliminary investigation revealed officers arrived on the scene, and located one male suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. Officer Warren encountered the suspect and was also shot."

The man and Warren were taken by ambulance to The Med, where both were pronounced dead. The suspect was subdued and taken to The Med. A woman overheard the suspect ranting as he was brought in.

“It was crazy. He was shouting, ‘I shot the officer. I shot the officer,’ ” Sharese Smit said.

Police cars swarmed the hotel, and officers roamed outside with shotguns and automatic weapons.

The hotel, across from The Peabody, was filled to capacity and rooms run about $130 per weekend night; guests were not allowed to return to their rooms until after 11.

Redbirds fans across the street filed out to the courtyard, peering through the gate at the commotion. The Redbirds continued with the game and postgame fireworks.

Joel Miller, a Maryland resident attending a family reunion, got in an elevator with the suspect, he said. The man, who was white and wearing shorts and a plaid shirt, “seemed off,” Miller said, “like he was out of it.”

Miller said hello to the man, who nodded in return. Then, as the man got off on the third floor, Miller saw him pull a gun from his pocket.

Then the man did something chilling, as Miller and his family watched from the glass elevator.

“He looked at us and pointed his finger and did like this,” Miller said, miming firing a weapon.

Added Markus Stringer, also in the elevator: “He was running through the third level. When he was running, he would duck down because we were watching him.”

Gina and Jimmy Halfacre of Jackson, Miss., were at the DoubleTree, celebrating their one-year anniversary. Some kids ran up to them, saying a man with a gun was on the elevator.

“They pointed him out on the second floor,” Jimmy Halfacre said. “They looked at me and said, ‘Do you think we should tell anyone?’ ”

DoubleTree guest Carolyn Scarbrough, visiting from Meridian, Miss., was in the lobby when everything erupted.

“We heard four shots, loud shots like a shotgun. It sounded like it was in an elevator,” she said. “I came outside and police officers just ran in. They got some shotguns out of the car. It was raining policemen.”

Antonio Webster, a DoubleTree employee, was about to serve food in the hotel’s banquet room when cops burst in with a warning.

“Next thing we know, police officers came back and told us there was a guy running around with a gun.”

Warren is the first MPD officer to die in the line of duty since Officer Marlon Titus died in a car accident March 30, 2004, while answering a call.

The last MPD officer shot and killed in the line of duty, patrolman Anthony Woods in 2003, was also responding to a domestic call.

After Titus was killed, an MPD officer identifying himself as “Tim Warren” and listing his badge ID number wrote on a website memorializing Titus.

It reads: “Titus was the first Ofc. I met that wasn’t a trainer. Just one of the guys. I was pretty nervous being one of a small handful of white officers in a nearly all black precinct. Titus gave me unconditional acceptance and a warm handshake from the first introduction to the last day. He taught me the only race in Police is blue. He made me feel like a member of his family.”

When the Halfacres heard some guests of the DoubleTree had asked for refunds, Gina teared up: "I understand their frustration, I do, but a man died today defending and protecting his city. I'm staying there (at the DoubleTree) too, and I came from here (Memphis). Today is our first anniversary (July 4) but we're not angry. We stopped and prayed."

Memphis Police officers killed in the line of duty since 1991:

Officer Marlon Titus: Died on March 30, 2004 in car accident while answering call.

Patrolman Anthony Woods: shot and killed on Aug. 27, 2003 while responding to a domestic violence call in Orange Mound.

Patrolman John Robinson: died in car accident on Dec. 1, 1999 while attempting to capture two robbery suspects.

Patrolman Don Overton: killed in car accident on Oct. 14, 1999 after being broadsided by four suspects in a car fleeing a scene.

Patrolman Dannael Weekes: killed in car accident on March 7, 1997 after responding to an officer in need of backup.

Major Rufus Gates: mistakenly shot and killed by a uniformed officer while undercover on Nov. 7, 1994.

Patrolman John Reeve: died after his squad car crashed into a telephone pole on Sept. 9, 1991 while responding to an alarm call.

Source: Fox - Commercial Appeal