A man was found dead Sunday after allegedly shooting five female relatives on Saturday in southwest Tennessee, killing four and injuring one, authorities said.
Mavis Christian Jr., 52, was found dead at 3:31 am with an apparent gunshot wound to the head in the car he was driving, the Memphis Police Department (MPD) said Sunday in a statement posted on Twitter.
Christian Jr. was declared wanted as an “armed and dangerous felon” in connection with the shooting incidents, the MPD said in a separate statement. Two of the three female victims were shot dead while the third was critically injured in the first incident, the statement noted. Two female victims reportedly died in each of the two subsequent shootings.
Three of the deceased victims were identified as Christian’s sister Ruby Manuel, his niece Lateisha Bobo, and Bobo’s daughter, Tori, WREG News reported. The fourth deceased victim was not named but police responded to a 2018 domestic violence call involving Christian’s ex-wife in the same house in which the victim was reportedly shot, per the report. (RELATED: Man Allegedly Decapitates Relative, Makes Off With Her Head, Police Say)
The 15-year-old critically injured victim was identified as 15-year-old Taylor, Bobo’s other daughter, who escaped with several gunshot wounds, WREG reported.
“We didn’t want him staying there because he was a man, and he thought a man was staying there,” Selise Manuel, Manuel’s daughter, told the outlet. “He threatened my mother a few times before and my sister a few times, but we didn’t think much of it even though we should have because he went to jail for attempted murder.”
“She is doing okay. She’s up, alert, talking, joking,” Selise said, referring to Taylor’s condition. “Emotionally, she’s sad. She lost her sister, her mother, and her grandmother all in some hours.”