MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Tangela Brown will never forget the sound of gunfire ripping through her Hickory Hill home during an early morning shooting that took her child’s life.
Memphis Police say the shooting happened on August 21, 2023. Brown remembers the painful day like it was yesterday.
“We was all sleep that morning, and at 4 o’clock we hear a lot of gunshots that woke us up out of our sleep,” said Brown.
Brown says her son, 19-year-old Jacquez Groves, was hit twice by gunfire while he was asleep in an upstairs bedroom.
“We jumping up and running into each other and trying to make sure that all of my kids are ok,” she said. “When they shot up my house, they shot out the lights, so it’s pitch-black dark, we can’t see nothing.”
Brown says she called out all of her children’s names, and everyone answered except one child.
“I’m like, ‘Is everybody ok?’ I’m like, ‘Is everybody good?’ They are like, ‘Yes Mom, we ok, we ok.’ Nobody hears Jac,” said Brown.
She rushed upstairs and found Jacquez still in his bed with a gunshot wound to the head. Paramedics rushed Jacquez to the hospital, where he was fighting for his life.
“They called me from Regional One and told me that he was trying to hold on for two hours,” Brown said. “His heart was beating, but he was brain-dead. He let go.”
WREG obtained surveillance video of the suspects opening fire on Brown’s home. You can see the gunman hanging out the window, shooting at her house.
She says it’s possible that her son may have known the suspects and, at one time, even called them friends.
Brown says when the gunmen took her son’s life, they destroyed any chance of her grandson ever knowing his father.
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“He has a son; his son was born two months after they took his life,” she said.
Brown says she knows someone knows who pulled the trigger and prays they will do the right thing and call the police. She has this message for the gunmen:
“I want them to know you can run from the law, but you can’t run from God,” said Brown.
If you know who killed Jacquez Groves, you are urged to call Crimestoppers at 529-CASH. Your tip could help put some dangerous criminals behind bars and $4,000 cash in your pocket. Remember, all calls are confidential.