Fugitive accused of shooting homeowner dead during car break-in attempt captured

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office captured one of the suspects accused of shooting a man to death outside the front door of his suburban home in late October.

Seven other men wanted for unrelated crimes were also arrested in a search Monday night at an Airbnb.

Donte Eddings, 19, is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Fernando Jones, 48 ​​years old.who SCSO said owned a home along Cutter Mill Road in southeast Shelby County.

Jones was killed in the early morning hours of October 21 when he yelled at thieves who were trying to break into his car in his driveway.

According to the arrest affidavit, Jones was “immediately shot” multiple times after opening the front door and drawing the attention of the suspects.

Jones was rushed to St. Francis Hospital in critical condition, where he later died.

Detectives noted that four suspects were seen on surveillance video, one of whom was “particularly notable” and was wearing the same bright yellow Sheffield High School hoodie worn by a suspect in a different attempted vehicle theft in August.

Through interviews and various police databases, detectives identified the suspect as Eddings.

SCSO alleges that Eddings was one of the gunmen who shot Jones as he left his home, according to security camera footage that captured the crime.

Eddings has been charged with vehicle theft before and had an active, unrelated warrant for felony theft of property when he was finally caught during a “high-risk warrant search” Monday night at an Airbnb on Grosvenor Avenue .

Officers arrested him and seven other people wanted for unrelated crimes at the home:

• Eric McNeal, 18 years old
• Roderick Danner, 19 years old.
• Zavion Owens, 20 years old.
• Desmond Emery, 21 years old.
• Gabriel Smith, 22 years old.
• Jonathan Rush, 22 years old.
• Curtiss Johnson, 32

These seven are charged with two counts of felony theft of property, three counts of possession of a machine gun, two counts of theft of a firearm, 10 counts of unlawful possession of a firearm and one count of possession of marijuana.

Johnson faces 11 additional charges of being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun.

Officers recovered four cars reported stolen from Memphis outside the home.

SCSO reported that once officers entered inside, they found 11 firearms, including six Dracos, one AR-style pistol and four black handguns.

The sheriff’s office says some of these guns were stolen and had circuit breakers.

“On the same day that the school shooting occurred in Madison, Wisconsin, we are executing a search warrant right across the street from an elementary school where we located seven assault weapons and two handguns equipped with Glock switches,” said the SCSO chief. Rep. Anthony Buckner. “What are we doing in our community?”

Eddings reportedly admitted his role in Jones’ murder and also admitted to being the suspect in the previous attempted robbery seen wearing the same yellow hoodie.

Eddings is being held in the Shelby County Jail and will make his first court appearance Wednesday morning.

No other arrests have been made in the murder case.

If you have information on the three remaining suspects, call CrimeStoppers at 901-528-CASH.

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