MEMPHIS, Tenn. (localmemphis.com) — Memphis Police are searching for the gunman responsible for the third shooting the past three weeks on a major interstate or road.
This, as Tennessee lawmakers delayed a bill which would have cracked down harder on road rage shooters.
Tuesday night, a passenger riding on I-240 and Millbranch Road was grazed by a bullet.
Drivers were again uneasy and infuriated after the latest shooting. It proved again the dangers when bullets fly around cars driving at high rates of speed and put innocent bystanders at risk.
“On the interstate?” Tanya Cooper. “That’s just terrible. The shooting needs to stop.”
It’s a situation far too common in Memphis in recent months: Memphis Police on a major highway or road, investigating a shooting which stemmed from road rage or a previous dispute between groups in cars.
“I’m scared I am going to get hit,” Cooper said. “Every day. It’s just really sad that it got to this,” Gloria Rollins added.
Tuesday night’s shooting on I-240 is at least the sixth such shooting on major Memphis thoroughfare in the last six months.
“I think that’s ridiculous, that’s crazy,” Patty Chapman said.
That includes an innocent driver being hit in the crossfire on Poplar and White State last month and a woman being hit by glass after a road rage shooting on I-40 and Jackson Avenue two weeks ago.
“Even if there’s someone in the car with me, that’s real frightening,” Chapman said.
Any changes in Tennessee law to crack down on those shooters in cars won’t happen anytime soon. Wednesday afternoon, a Senate committee delayed a proposed bill until next year, which would increase a road rage shooting from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class D felony.
“Tougher laws, more police on highway, that’d be good, that’d be real good, because that is really concerning,” Chapman said.
Memphis Police are still looking for the shooter or shooters responsible, but don’t have much to go on.