Residents in Frayser speak out; voice concerns about rise in crime

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - It’s been a few dark days of crime in the Frayser community that some residents are still trying to wrap their heads around.

Monday, Memphis police arrested and charged a couple in Frayser for fatally shooting a St. Jude employee downtown.

Then—in two separate shootings in the area—two teenagers lost their lives.

15-year-old Jacque Nelson was killed in the Breezy Point Apartments, then two days after a 17-year-old was killed on Nunnelee Avenue.

Following those shootings, MSCS made the decision to close off Tuesday night’s boys basketball game due to ‘unrest in the community.’

“I’m really struggling trying to figure out where we can intersect ourselves so we can begin to have some type of impact,” said Frayser Pastor DeAndre Brown.

Pastor Brown said it was for this very reason that he started his nonprofit Lifeline to Success 14 years ago for troubled individuals and ex-offenders.

“Our job is to engage individuals that are actively committing crimes or have a criminal history and give them a different way of living. The problem is now it’s not just individuals that are actively committing crimes that have records, it’s the general public seeing this behavior as normal.

Pastor Brown said he’s urging troubled individuals to leave lives of crime behind and transform themselves into productive members of society.

“They don’t really understand that if you don’t change your behavior now what’s waiting for you is something that no one can really describe with words,” said Brown. “The separation, the disconnection, the sense of isolation, and the trauma that comes behind all of this, when you’re in prison, it’s something you never shake.”

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