Weeks after the Shelby County District Attorney's Office said Memphis police arrested the wrong person for a May 5 shooting inside a local LGBTQ+ nonprofit, the Memphis Police Department said it has now arrested the correct person.
According to MPD, 38-year-old Lorenzo Matthews was indicted on Aug. 20 for opening fire inside OUTMemphis' Cooper Young location. He was arrested on Aug. 28, the department said, in the 900 block of Early Maxwell, near where the shooting occurred.
Matthews is charged with attempted one count of second-degree murder, two counts of aggravated assault and one count of employment of a firearm with intent to commit a felony.
The shooting inside OUTMemphis, according to a police affidavit filed in the case of the wrongfully-arrested
person, stemmed from "a verbal altercation" between participants of the nonprofit's programming. When the altercation escalated, Matthews is accused to pulling a gun from a purse and firing one shot.
That shot, according to the previous affidavit, hit two victims. Both survived the shooting, but were taken to the hospital. One victim was shot in the neck and another shot in the abdomen.
A third person was present for the shooting, but not hit by gunfire.
One person, who The Commercial Appeal is not naming sinced the charges against them have been dropped, was arrested a day after the shooting. They remained in jail from May 6 until late July, when Shelby County DA Steve Mulroy said his office was informed the person in custody was not the shooter.
"We all understand that a prosecutor's office's task is to convict the guilty and see that they are held accountable," Mulroy said in his July 31 newsletter. "But it is just as important — maybe even more important — to make sure that the innocent are not wrongly punished. This week, after receiving new information from a criminal defense attorney and hearing concerns from members of the community, we acted without delay."
According to Mulroy, the wrong person was identified by two witnesses as the shooter and later arrested. When the DA's office was informed of this, he said his team "immediately set aside their other work and began a new investigation" into the shooting.
"Within 24 hours, our team had re-interviewed witnesses, located additional witnesses, identified a different suspect, and secured (a) release," Mulroy said.
That new suspect was not named in the newsletter.
The shooting at OUTMemphis led to the nonprofit briefly closing all of its buildings before opening up a week later.
Lucas Finton covers crime, policing, jails, the courts and criminal justice policy for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by phone or email: (901)208-3922 and Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com, and followed on X @LucasFinton.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Police arrest new suspect in OUTMemphis shooting after past wrongful arrest
