MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphians have questions about the City of Memphis’ alert system after it woke up some, alerting them a man went on a shooting spree Saturday night.
People as far as Germantown received the alert that Mavis Christian Jr. was a suspect in the shooting of multiple family members in Memphis, and he was armed and dangerous.
Some are taking issue with the fact the alert did not have all the necessary information they were hoping for, like where the shootings happened.
"We immediately thought, is this a scam? Is this a real thing?" said Greg Miller, one of the many Memphians surprised by the alerts Sunday morning.
Like several others, Miller thought the alert was a fake, only to later discover they were real.
"Then you get it and, do I need to panic about this?" Miller said. "How targeted is this alert? Is this a statewide thing, or is it in my neighborhood? But then also what am I supposed to do about it?”
In the messages, very little information was provided where the shootings took place Saturday or where Christian could possibly be. Even if it was just a general location, Miller said he would have liked to hear something.
"I think you have to be reasonable, like, they don't know where he is," Miller said. "You can be anywhere in the city in 15 or 20 minutes."
ABC24 went to the Memphis Police Department and asked why none of this information was shared in the alert. A spokesperson did not speak with reporters in-person, instead answering via email:
“The message is crafted based on the type of incident or event, the severity, and it includes information that is pertinent to getting out to the public as soon as possible.
We feel the messaging system worked as designed. Memphians that would like to receive message alerts should go to Memphisalerts.com and sign up there.
The alert was issued after the shootings occurred and the suspect was at large. Armed with this information we felt that the alert needed to go out city and county-wide to notify the public of the potential danger.”
While Ana Aguirre says she appreciated the alerts, she still would have liked to know where the shootings were.
"Well is he in my neighborhood, or is he downtown, I think that would have been a little bit more helpful to definitely let us know where exactly in the area, if you live in the area where you need to be more alert," Aguirre said.
The city alert system launched in Memphis back in February, just five months after Ezekiel Kelly’s shooting spree, which shut down parts of the Bluff City. The same shooting spree also inspired the creation of emergency alert systems in Germantown and Shelby County as a whole.