MEMPHIS MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — An off-duty police officer died Sunday after being shot multiple times, the fourth Memphis police officer to be fatally shot in slightly more than four years, authorities said.
Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong said 31-year-old Terence Olridge was taken to the Regional Medical Center, where he later died.
Memphis police spokesman Louis Brownlee said Monday morning that Lorenzo Clark has been charged with being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun. Brownlee says Clark was a neighbor of 31-year-old Terence Olridge, who died Sunday after being shot multiple times at a home in the Memphis suburb of Cordova.
Police said Olridge was on his way to work Sunday at about 1 p.m. when he had an encounter with Clark outside his house. The men exchanged gunfire, and Olridge was struck. The nature of the encounter was not immediately clear.
After the shooting, Olridge went back to his house and tried to get help. He was taken to a hospital, where he died. Police say Clark surrendered peacefully after the shooting.
Clark is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday. Court records do not show whether he has a lawyer who could be contacted for comment.
Armstrong said the investigation is ongoing and that “details are sketchy.” Relatives of the officer could be seen crying outside the hospital.
Police blocked the street in front of the house where the shooting happened. A plainclothes detective spoke with a neighbor and uniformed officers also were on the scene.
Olridge joined the department in September 2014. He had a fiancee who is four months pregnant, Armstrong said.
Olridge is the fourth Memphis police officer to be fatally shot in slightly more than four years.
In August, Memphis police officer Sean Bolton was fatally shot in the line of duty.
Police have charged 29-year-old Tremaine Wilbourn, who was on probation for an armed bank robbery, with first-degree murder in Bolton’s death.
Bolton was white, and Wilbourn is black.
Officer Tim Warren was killed while responding to a shooting at a downtown Memphis hotel in July 2011. In December 2012, Officer Martoiya Lang was killed while serving a warrant.
Dozens of people took to Facebook to offer condolences and prayers for Olridge’s family.
Postings on the Blue Lives Matter Memphis page also called for support for the Memphis Police Department, which has had two officers shot to death in about 2 ½ months.
In past shootings, Armstrong has addressed the media outside the Regional Medical Center.
“I didn’t think that we’d be here again so soon,” Armstrong told reporters on Sunday.