A LeMoyne-Owen College track athlete says she saw a man exposing himself during her practice, sending her running to call her mother in a panic before the man fled and was later found hiding in bushes on property belonging to Soulsville Charter School across the street. The suspect has not been arrested as of Monday morning, and the college says it has never seen the man before.
The student's mother, Memee Wells, said her daughter called her during practice to report the man, according to FOX13 Memphis. Wells told her daughter to record the man, and after hanging up with her mother, the student did just that, capturing video as the man was allegedly exposing himself nearby. The man was spotted behind LeMoyne-Owen College's dorms before running off once the student and other girls recorded him and yelled at him.
Wells said she immediately contacted both LeMoyne-Owen College and Soulsville Charter School after her daughter's call. The man was ultimately located in bushes on Soulsville Charter School's property, across the street from where the track team was practicing. Soulsville Charter School told Wells it had not seen the man before, and the college gave the same response when Wells reached out.
Campus Response and Safety Changes
LeMoyne-Owen College acknowledged the incident and said it prioritizes student safety, with the college's campus safety team maintaining a visible presence on and around the campus. Per Wells, the college said it would increase security and would move the student's track practices indoors for now. The incident is reported to have occurred off LeMoyne-Owen's campus, though it unfolded just across the street on school property tied to Soulsville Charter School, a public charter school serving roughly 650 students in grades 6 through 12 at 1115 College Street, immediately adjacent to the college.
LeMoyne-Owen, located at 807 Walker Avenue in the historic Soulsville district, was founded in 1862 and remains Memphis' only historically Black college or university. The school operates a 24-hour Campus Safety Department with a central Safety Control Center in the Brownlee parking lot and a manned guard house at the main entrance. Coordinating a response to an incident like this one, however, requires cooperation between college security, the charter school, and the Memphis Police Department, since it happened on surrounding property rather than inside the campus gates.
A Track Program Already Facing Outdoor Hurdles
The decision to move practices indoors adds another wrinkle to a track and field program that has struggled with outdoor facilities since its revival. LeMoyne-Owen re-established the program in 2021 after a 23-year hiatus, initially hiring two-time Olympic medalist Rochelle Stevens, who resigned in late 2022 citing a lack of dedicated track facilities and equipment, according to Local Memphis. Now, safety concerns are compounding those infrastructure challenges for the team.
Parents and students are voicing concern over the reported exposure, and the incident's location near school property raises questions about how the case will ultimately be charged if the suspect is caught. Under Tennessee Code § 39-13-511, indecent exposure is typically a Class B misdemeanor for a first offense involving adults, carrying up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $500, per FindLaw. But the statute escalates to a Class A misdemeanor or even a Class E felony when the incident occurs on the property of a public or private school during school hours, leaving open whether the man's presence on Soulsville Charter School grounds could factor into any future charges.
Part of a Broader Pattern in Memphis
This is not an isolated concern for the city. In April, Memphis police searched for a peeping-tom suspect in East Memphis following a similar public exposure investigation the year before at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, cases that, like this one, relied heavily on public tips to identify unknown suspects, as previously reported by Hoodline. Soulsville itself has seen other recent public safety incidents, including a March shooting that prompted police to canvass South Bellevue Boulevard near the LeMoyne-Owen campus.
The college's response to this incident comes as LeMoyne-Owen continues to invest in its Soulsville footprint. The school recently filed plans for a $1.5 million renovation converting the former Bethel Presbyterian Church on Mississippi Boulevard into its new School of Business and Entrepreneurship, a project that repurposes a historic property adjacent to campus. Anyone with information about the man seen near the dorms and later found in the bushes across from Soulsville Charter School is asked to contact CrimeStoppers of Memphis and Shelby County at 901-528-CASH, which offers cash rewards up to $1,000 for tips leading to an arrest.
