18-year-old Asaiah Lurry was charged with aggravated robbery and felony possession of a firearm after he and a friend tried to rob a man at gunpoint, fired shots at him when he ran away, and then told police he was just playing basketball.
On September 27th, Memphis Police Officers Henderson and Wood were dispatched to an attempted robbery call at 1765 Walter Street. Upon arrival, officers made contact with Mario Pineda-Alvarez who stated that Asaiah Lurry and Lawrence Jackson had walked up behind him in his driveway and pointed guns at him, and demanded his money. Mario attempted to grab one of the suspect’s gun and wrestled it out of his hand. The other suspect then pointed a Glock in his face commanding Mario to “let the gun go”.
At that point, Mario let the gun go and ran towards his house. Asaiah and Lawrence fired shots towards Mario and then ran away. Officers stated that while on the scene, they received a call of shots fired call in the immediate area. Officers observed two men matching the description of the suspects responsible for the attempted robbery wandering the area of Queensbury Avenue and Holiday Street. Officers made contact with the men and were able to detain Asaiah, who was strolling along with Lawrence Jackson.
When officers tried to detain Jackson, he fled the scene on foot jumping a fence into the backyard. One of the officers spotted Jackson covering up something in the yard before attempting to run as his red Nike slides came flying off his feet. After a momentary struggle, the officer was successful in detaining him. Later, officers uncovered a light-mounted tan Glock under Jackson’s slides and a black plastic baggie containing thirty-two 9 mm rounds located in the same area as him. Four 9 mm casings were found on his person matching the ones in the baggie.
After checking the serial number of the Glock, it showed the handgun was stolen from a motor vehicle on September 25th. Asaiah and Lawrence were taken into custody. Asaiah gave a statement and said that he was on Walter Street playing basketball earlier in the evening with a friend he only knows as “Willie” but could not identify him any farther or give a location as of to where he was playing basketball. Asaiah denied having any involvement in the robbery on Walter Street.
Asaiah told officers when he met up with Lawrence he was walking home before police stopped them. Asaiah’s statement was inconsistent due to Jackson stating they were together all evening from 6:00 pm before police stopped them. Asaiah was wearing red-colored pants and a red-colored jacket that matched the description of one of the suspects Alvarez described.
Asaiah Lurry was arrested and charged with criminal attempt felony, aggravated robbery, and felony possession of a firearm. He is currently jailed in lieu of a $50,000 bond.
