Nearly two years after her teenage son was gunned down in Midtown, Memphis mother Jessica Kizer says she is still in the dark about who pulled the trigger and why. The silence, she says, has left her family chasing leads on their own and constantly pressing city officials and police for answers that never seem to come.
Sixteen-year-old Jeremiah Arnold was shot in a late-night burst of gunfire near Roland Street in Midtown on March 16, 2024. Three people were hit and rushed to nearby hospitals; Arnold later died from his injuries. Investigators initially treated the shooting as a targeted attack, and no arrests have been announced. The case remains an active investigation, according to Action News 5.
Kizer told reporters she had been tracking her son's location on her phone that night and only found out he had been shot when a friend called her. Since then, she says, repeated calls to detectives for updates have felt like shouting into a void. "I feel like I’m being left out," she told Action News 5, adding that she wishes more witnesses would come forward.
In a more recent update, the Memphis Police Department told FOX13 Memphis there is still "no update to report" in Arnold’s homicide. Kizer told FOX13 she believes her son was only at the scene to drop off friends who were heading to get food from a party at a short-term rental and says she wants clearer answers about who police interviewed that night and what those conversations revealed.
Short-Term Rentals Under Scrutiny
Arnold’s killing has tapped into a broader citywide fight over short-term rentals and neighborhood safety in Memphis, where officials have been reviewing how these properties are regulated and enforced since 2023. Local reporting notes that the City Council approved a short-term rental ordinance in 2023, and council members have kept up discussions on permits, nuisance properties, and how to crack down on problem rentals.
Yahoo has highlighted both the ordinance and efforts by Airbnb to identify and block risky bookings in Memphis as part of a broader attempt to curb disruptive or unsafe stays.
As the investigation drags on, Arnold’s parents and supporters have turned to online fundraising and memorial pages to handle funeral costs and keep his story in the public eye. That includes a GoFundMe campaign organized by his mother. Memorial databases list March 16, 2024, as the date he was lost to gun violence. Both GoFundMe and Gun Memorial host pages honoring Arnold and documenting how the community has responded.
Kizer says she has no plans to stop pushing for answers and is urging anyone who knows something about that night to contact investigators. The Memphis Police Department and detectives continue to seek tips from the public as the family waits and hopes for a break in the case, according to FOX13 Memphis.
