A Memphis girl says a home-owner fatally shot her husband simply moments after the couple pulled right into a stranger’s driveway in an try and evade a visitors ticket.
Sheila Booker recalled the tragic moments when her husband, Rodriguez Poplar, was shot proper in entrance of her. She stated she and Poplar have been driving via a residential neighborhood on Jan. 9 when Poplar noticed some blue police headlights forward of them.
Booker stated her husband instructed her to tug right into a driveway and wait as a result of their automotive had expired tags and a damaged headlight.
As quickly as she parked within the driveway, the home-owner got here out of his home armed and demanded that they go away his property, Booker claims.
“So, he pulled the gun in my face, and that’s when my husband bought out, and my husband bought out making an attempt to guard me, and that’s when he shot my husband proper in entrance of me,” Booker instructed WHBQ.
As a result of the police have been close by, they arrived on the scene in lower than a minute.
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“The police got here so quick,” Booker stated. “If it weren’t for them, I believe I’d be useless. They saved my life.”
The home-owner, Tommy Applewhite, was taken into custody and faces a number of fees, together with second-degree homicide.
He reportedly instructed investigators that he opened hearth as a result of he thought Poplar was bullying him.
“How will you name somebody a bully as a result of we pulled in a yard?” Booker requested.
Applewhite has a legal historical past courting again to 2001 that features quite a few gun and drug fees.
He confronted tried homicide fees in 2007 after he shot a person twice within the face at an house complicated. The sufferer instructed police the capturing occurred per week after he and Applewhite argued. Applewhite pleaded responsible to the fees and was sentenced to serve three years in jail.
On the time of Poplar’s capturing demise, Applewhite was on lively probation after pleading responsible to a gun cost in 2022.
Booker has launched a GoFundMe to boost donations that may go towards her husband’s burial bills. Poplar’s demise has left Booker to boost 5 youngsters alone, all between the ages of three and 10.
She stated she plans to maintain up with Applewhite’s scheduled court docket appearances.
