Man gets weapon charge in fatal shooting of Memphis officer

By Adrian Sainz, Associated Press

Monday, Oct. 12, 2015 | 8:49 a.m.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A man with a felony record has been charged with possession of a firearm in connection with the fatal shooting of an off-duty Memphis police officer, authorities said Monday.

Lorenzo Clark, 36, was charged in the shooting death of 31-year-old Terence Olridge, who had been on the Memphis Police Department just a little over a year. He is the second police officer to die in a shooting in less than three months.

Memphis police spokesman Louis Brownlee said Olridge and Clark were involved in an argument that escalated into a shootout in the Memphis suburb of Cordova. The two men were neighbors. Olridge was on his way to work Sunday at about 1 p.m. when the encounter with Clark happened.

The men exchanged gunfire, and Olridge was struck. He went back to his house and tried to get help. He was taken to a hospital, where he died. Police say Clark surrendered peacefully after the shooting.

Brownlee declined to say whether more charges would be filed in the case.

Clark was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday. Court records did not show whether he had a lawyer who could be contacted for comment.

Olridge is one of four Memphis officers have been shot to death in just over four years and the second fatally shot in the past 2.5 months.

"It just doesn't get any easier," Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong told reporters Sunday. "I didn't think that we'd be here again so soon."

He noted that the investigation is in its early phases, adding that "details are sketchy."

Police on Sunday blocked the street in front of the house where the shooting happened. A plainclothes detective spoke with a neighbor. Uniformed officers also were on the scene.

Olridge, who joined the department in September 2014, had a fiancee who is four months pregnant, Armstrong said.

Relatives of the officer could be seen crying outside the hospital where he was taken.

In August, Memphis police officer Sean Bolton was fatally shot in the line of duty. Police have charged 29-year-old Tremaine Wilbourn, who was on probation for an armed bank robbery, with first-degree murder in Bolton's death.

Officer Tim Warren was killed while responding to a shooting at a downtown Memphis hotel in July 2011. In December 2012, Officer Martoiya Lang was killed while serving a warrant.