A man is in custody after being accused of shooting a driver in the head who cut him off, Tennessee police said.
On June 10, Memphis police officers responded to reports of a shooting around 7:15 a.m., according to a Shelby County criminal court arrest affidavit.
Officers found a black Toyota pickup truck crashed into a pole and the driver slumped over in his seat, police said.
The driver, identified as Obed Merida, had a gunshot wound in his head, police said, and the truck’s back window had multiple bullet holes.
Merida was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
A passenger in the car told police Merida picked him up from his house that morning.
The passenger told police a four-door red sedan cut them off on the road. Merida drove around the sedan and pulled back in front of the car, the passenger said.
The passenger then said he “heard one gunshot,” and the truck veered off the road before crashing into a pole, according to the affidavit.
Police used surveillance video from a nearby gas station to identify the driver of the sedan as 39-year-old Damarr Jones, police said.
On June 11, police were granted a search warrant for Jones’ home where they found the sedan parked in the driveway, according to the affidavit.
Inside Jones’ apartment, police found a loaded handgun matching the make of the one used in the shooting, according to the affidavit. Police said it contained the same rounds found on the road after the shooting.
Police said they also found separate bags of ecstasy and fentanyl and a digital scale in Jones’ nightstand. An empty gun magazine and the shirt seen in the surveillance video used to identify him were also discovered, according to the affidavit.
Jones was taken into custody but told police he didn’t have any “knowledge of a road rage incident between himself and another car,” according to the affidavit.
When showed the surveillance footage from the gas station, Jones told police that the black truck had pulled in front of him, so he pulled up next to it and “confronted two Mexicans” before pulling behind the truck, according to the affidavit. He denied shooting at the truck.
Jones was charged with second-degree murder, possession of a firearm during a dangerous felony, being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun, possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell fentanyl and possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell ecstasy, according to the arrest affidavit.
Jones was previously found guilty of robbery and was sentenced to six years in 2012, according to police.