A man who police say tried to run over a sheriff's deputy Thursday in Tennessee's Shelby County, as the lawman tried to serve him with a warrant, was killed Friday morning by police at a motel in West Memphis.
Ricardo Tenorio, 32, was shot and killed by West Memphis police around 3 a.m. Friday in a shootout at the Days Inn on Ingram Boulevard, according to Earle Farrell, spokesman for the Shelby County sheriff's office.
Tenorio was wanted for questioning in a homicide case, Farrell said. He fled after the Shelby County deputy approached him Thursday afternoon at a residence in the Memphis area, according to Farrell.
Investigators later received a tip that Tenorio was staying at the West Memphis motel, Farrell said.
"Deputies went and knocked on the door and said 'come out' and the shooting took place," Farrell said. "They knew he was armed and dangerous. They wanted to use the warrant to pick him up. Turns out he didn't want to do that."
West Memphis Police Chief Donald Oakes said officers evacuated the motel rooms around Tenorio's room before ordering him to step outside. Oakes said police had been told that Tenorio would have no intention of surrendering.
"The guy basically comes out with his pistol firing one round to the parking lot and then sees the arrest team and fires a round toward them," Oakes said.
Oakes said Tenorio was reaching for a second pistol in his waistband when officers shot him.
Tenorio was named in multiple warrants, including for aggravated assault, parole violation and burglary, according to online records.
Farrell said that on Thursday afternoon, the Shelby County deputy had located Tenorio in a van in the driveway of a known drug house. When the officer approached him, Tenorio pulled a gun, fired at the officer and tried to run over the deputy, Farrell said.
"One of our guys tried to grab him, and he grabs the wheel and sped off with a woman in the van," Farrell said.
The unidentified woman was found later in the neighborhood, Farrell said. Officers also discovered that the van had been stolen, Farrell said.
"The whole bunch [at this house] are meth heads," Farrell said. "The house is a drug house, a prostitution house, a do anything for a buck kind of deal."
West Memphis police deal with fugitives from time to time because of the city's proximity to interstates and Memphis, Oakes said, but most of the time the fugitives surrender.
"The police do try to de-escalate things," Oakes said. "The last thing you want to do is to shoot, but when you come out and shoot at policemen, you are probably going to get shot.
"Usually they surrender, but this guy wasn't going to do that. He was committed to not going back to jail."
State Desk on 09/10/2016