A 57-year-old man is facing felony charges after Memphis police say he opened fire on a car in the parking lot of a Whitehaven apartment complex, sending bullets through a neighbor's front door, two interior walls and into a closet where two people were sheltering. Christopher Jennings told investigators he fired three shots at a white vehicle because its driver tried to run him over, but the rounds ended up striking two separate apartments at Highland Meadows Apartments, according to police.
The shooting happened Friday night at the complex in Whitehaven, as reported by WREG.com. Jennings admitted to investigators that he fired his weapon three times at a female inside the vehicle, but insisted he was not trying to shoot into anyone's apartment, per the station's report. Police say bullets nonetheless passed through one resident's front door and two walls; that resident was not home at the time.
Bullet Found Lodged in a Closet While Two People Were Home
In a second apartment, officers found a bullet lodged inside a closet where two people were present when the shots were fired, according to the same account. No injuries were reported among residents inside either unit, police said. The station noted that residents at the complex escaped serious injury after shots were fired in the parking lot.
Jennings reportedly told police they could find his weapon inside apartment #4, and VCU investigators executed a search warrant there. Officers recovered a black Taurus G2C 9mm handgun with one round still in the chamber, sitting on a bedroom bed, per the report.
Charges and Bond
Jennings was charged with reckless endangerment, three counts of discharging a firearm into a habitation and seven counts of vandalism of property, the station reported. He is being held on a $50,000 bond and was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.
Under Tennessee's reckless endangerment statute, discharging a firearm into a habitation is classified as a Class C felony, or a Class D felony if the habitation was unoccupied, according to Tennessee legislative records.
Not the First Shooting at the Complex
Highland Meadows Apartments has seen gunfire before. In 2023, a man was arrested and charged with reckless homicide after Memphis police said he accidentally shot another man, Gary Cheatham, who was found unresponsive with a possible gunshot wound, according to fox13memphis.com.
Just days before Friday's incident, a separate shooting rattled another Whitehaven apartment when gunshots struck a residence while a woman and her family were asleep inside, according to Action News 5. No injuries were reported in that case either, and police described the suspect as a man in all-black clothing driving an older-model gray Nissan. That shooting and the Highland Meadows incident involving Jennings are separate cases.
No details were immediately available on the identity or condition of the driver Jennings says he fired at, and it remains unclear what happens next in his case beyond Tuesday's scheduled court appearance.
