A disagreement over a gun inside a Whitehaven apartment complex ended with a man dead and a 20-year-old facing murder charges. Police say officers were called to the Graceland Pointe Apartments just after 8 p.m. Thursday and found a man suffering from gunshot wounds to his upper right leg and chest. He was pronounced dead shortly before 9 p.m.
Darren Hurt, also known as “Lil D,” has been charged with second-degree murder and employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, according to Action News 5. The outlet reports that before he died, the victim told officers, “lil d shot me,” and pointed toward a nearby apartment unit, according to the affidavit cited in its report.
Argument Over a Gun Preceded the Shooting
Hurt told investigators the victim came to his door and started an argument after Hurt refused to hand over his gun, the station's report states. Hurt said the victim punched him in the nose and ran down the stairs, at which point Hurt told investigators he chased the victim outside and shot him with a handgun.
Police detained Hurt along with his mother, Natasha Hurt, according to the same account. Investigators said Natasha Hurt saw her son outside pointing a weapon at the victim, and she admitted to hiding a handgun in a clothes hamper, per the report.
Confession and Booking
According to police, Hurt confessed to the shooting. He was booked into the Shelby County Jail following the confession, the outlet reported. The circumstances around the argument itself, including what prompted the initial dispute over the weapon, remain as described solely through Hurt's own account to investigators as relayed in the report.
The shooting comes after a decline in Memphis homicides in 2025, though citywide figures do not describe conditions at any one apartment complex or neighborhood. The Memphis Police Department said the city recorded fewer than 200 murders that year, a 26% drop from 2024 and the first time below that threshold since 2019. The department also reported 643 incidents in which people were injured in shootings, 38% fewer than in 2024. MPD’s year-end figures provide citywide context for the case.
The case is not the first deadly shooting tied to a fight at a Whitehaven apartment complex in recent years. In July 2023, police said a fight at Highland Meadows Apartments led to a shooting that killed two people and injured two others. That incident occurred at a different complex and is separate from the Graceland Pointe case, but it offers a local precedent for how quickly disputes involving gunfire can turn deadly. Police reported two deaths and two injuries.
A sentencing law took effect in Tennessee on July 1, 2026, requiring a person convicted of second-degree murder for knowingly killing another to be sentenced no lower than Range II. The change predates the Oct. 29 shooting, but it concerns a possible sentence only if there is a conviction; Hurt has been charged, not convicted. The measure was enacted as Public Chapter 752.
