A 19-year-old man is a young suspect now facing charges after a chaotic shootout tore through Memphis's Cooper-Young area in July, one that sent dozens of rounds flying through a gas station, down a residential street, and into a bystander's car. Trevor Bell was arrested and booked into jail on Wednesday, and he is due in court Thursday morning on five counts of attempted second-degree murder, five counts of employing a firearm with intent to commit a felony, and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon.
The shootout began the night of July 23, when officers were called just before 9 p.m. to a shooting near New York Street and Oliver Avenue, according to WREG. Surveillance video reportedly showed seven people getting out of a tan Buick Rainier and walking into the Marathon gas station's convenience store just as a black Nissan Altima pulled up to a gas pump. Someone in the Altima allegedly alerted armed people waiting in the car, and the group inside the store began ducking and drawing weapons before gunfire broke out.
What followed spilled across several blocks. Several people fled down Young Avenue while continuing to fire shots, per the station's report, and bullets struck the convenience store, several vehicles, and a bystander's car five times while the bystander was pumping gas, according to Nashville Noticias. Despite the barrage, no injuries were reported to emergency responders, and the shootout ultimately ended in the Cooper-Young neighborhood with no one struck by gunfire.
Dozens of Shell Casings Tell the Story
Investigators later recovered 47 spent handgun and rifle casings at the Marathon station on East Parkway South, per the same account. The scope of that evidence illustrates just how far the gunfire traveled beyond the store's parking lot.
Bell's arrest makes him another young suspect charged in the case. Police had already arrested Rodderius Shambley, 19, and Marcus Jones, 18, in the 1600 block of South Cooper Street just blocks from the shooting scene, according to the Memphis Police Department. Both had been previously charged in the case, WREG reported. An 18-year-old suspect named Jamarion Threlkeld was charged with five counts of attempted second-degree murder along with firearm offenses, Nashville Noticias reported. Related reports attributed the distinctive neck-tattoo identification and August arrest to Amarion Threlkeld. No bond information has been reported for Bell.
Steep Penalties Under Tennessee Law
Each defendant charged with attempted second-degree murder faces a Class B felony under Tennessee law, carrying a potential sentence of 8 to 30 years in prison per count, according to FindLaw. The firearm employment charges carry their own weight: under Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-17-1324, employing a firearm during a dangerous felony is a Class C felony with a mandatory minimum six-year prison sentence served consecutively to any sentence for the underlying felony, per Justia Law.
Felony proceedings for adult suspects arrested in Memphis, including Bell's Thursday court date, typically take place at the Shelby County General Sessions Criminal Court inside the 201 Poplar Avenue judicial complex, which serves as the primary processing hub for felony cases originating within city limits, per Hoodline's prior reporting.
A Neighborhood Grappling With Repeated Gun Violence
Cooper-Young is a historic Midtown Memphis district built around its namesake streets, known for a vibrant commercial strip, local dining, nightlife, and an annual autumn neighborhood festival. That same pedestrian-heavy commercial vitality is part of what makes shootouts like this one so alarming to residents. The area saw another major violent crime just months earlier, in May, when a daylight shooting on Cooper Street near Oliver Avenue left two women critically injured.
The case underscores an ongoing tension between Cooper-Young's identity as a walkable Midtown entertainment hub and a string of high-profile gun violence incidents along its commercial borders. In this case, the Memphis Safe Task Force arranged a surrender point with a suspect's family.
Several questions remain unresolved in the case, including whether additional gunmen identified on surveillance video are still at large, how prosecutors intend to try the multiple co-defendants, and whether the initial confrontation stemmed from an escalating interpersonal dispute or a broader group conflict.
