Man gets weapon charge in shooting of officer

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Terence Olridge was heading to his job as a police officer when he and a neighbor were involved in an argument that escalated into a shootout in a normally quiet neighborhood in suburban Memphis, authorities said.

Shot multiple times, Olridge tried to make it back to his house to get help. He was later taken to a hospital, where he died Sunday afternoon — becoming the second Memphis police officer to be killed in a shooting in less than three months, police said.

Details about what caused the altercation between Olridge, 31, and Lorenzo Clark, 36, in the suburb of Cordova, on a street lined with similar looking single family homes with garage doors and trees in the front yard, are still not clear. At least two garage doors have bullet holes in them now.

But police said Monday that Clark has been charged with being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm in connection with Olridge’s death. He has a court appearance Tuesday. Court records do not show if Clark has a lawyer.

Authorities are still investigating the shooting, Memphis police spokesman Louis Brownlee said. He declined to say whether more charges would be filed.

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

After the shooting, Clark surrendered peacefully, police said. A court affidavit says Clark told police he had a 9mm Glock handgun in his pants, took the gun out and started firing several shots in the street. The affidavit says Clark fired “several shots which resulted in a death.”

Clark was sentenced to just under 2 years imprisonment when he pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon and unlawful possession of a weapon in a public place in March 2003, Shelby County court records show.

Dennis Lax said he was not home when the shooting took place but when he arrived there were many marked and unmarked police vehicles and the street was already blocked off. Lax said that before the shooting the only thing that worried him about the neighborhood is the danger of cars running over children who play in the street.

Olridge is one of four Memphis officers who have been shot to death in just over four years, and the second fatally shot in the past 2 1/2 months.

“It just doesn’t get any easier,” Armstrong told reporters outside the hospital Sunday. “I didn’t think that we’d be here again so soon.”

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.

More in News

(Juneau E
Aurora forecast for the week of Nov. 27

These forecasts are courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute… Continue reading

Ron Ekis (wearing red) and Dakota Brown order from Devils Hideaway at the new Vintage Food Truck Park as Marty McKeown, owner of the property, shows seating facilities still under construction to other local media members on Wednesday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
New Vintage Food Truck Park makes year-round debut

Two of planned five food trucks now open, with covered seating and other offerings in the works.

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

An aerial view of mud and forest debris that buried a stretch of the Zimovia Highway a day after a landslide struck an area of Wrangell on Nov. 21. (Photo courtesy of the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities)
Authorities in Wrangell suspend search for boy missing after deadly landslide

Authorities have suspended the search for the 12-year-old boy still missing following… Continue reading

Steve Bradford (left) and Mark Kissel, both vice presidents of the Riverside Condominiums Homeowners Association, discuss repairs to two of the complex’s buildings on Aug. 9 as a bulldozer places rock fill under a corner of one building exposed by erosion during record flooding of the Mendenhall River on Aug. 5. Repairs to both buildings ultimately were successful. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)
Juneau Community Foundation offering pool of $28,300 in relief funds to Suicide Basin flood victims

Deadline to apply is Dec. 31, funds will be divided among applicants.

Key Bank was one of the banks victimized by a Juneau man who was sentenced Tuesday to two-and-a-half years in prison for stealing nearly $580,000 multiple banks and credit unions between 2020 and 2022. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire file photo)
Former Juneau armored guard sentenced to 2½ years for stealing from banks, credit unions

Austin Nolan Dwight Rutherford, 29, convicted of stealing nearly $580,000 between 2020 and 2022.

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Monday, Dec. 4, 2023

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

The Juneau School District is entangled in a dispute with the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development about supplemental funds the city provides for what the district calls non-instructional purposes such as after-school programs and pupil transportation. (Jonson Kuhn / Juneau Empire file photo)
State seeks to change rules for ‘local contribution’ funds to school districts beyond the ‘cap’

Education department abandons challenge under existing state law to Juneau, other districts.

A chart shows the proposed plans for each of the Alaska Marine Highway System’s nine ferries next summer under a schedule open for public comment until Dec. 19. (Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities)
Proposed ferry schedule for next summer looks a lot like this year’s — with one possible big exception

Cross-Gulf sailings will resume if enough crew hired; AMHS begins two-week public comment period.

Most Read