MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A drive-by shooting occurred in Memphis just as an on-camera interview with a Democratic city council candidate was getting underway. Gunfire sent the candidate and the interviewer ducking for cover.
Yolanda Cooper-Sutton, a community leader in the Whitehaven neighborhood in Memphis, hit the ground and directed the interviewer to do the same during the chilling incident, Fox News Digital reported.
“I got a call to do an interview that they wanted us to talk about the crime and the gun crime and the solutions that are now arising with the citizens and with the current administration and what my thoughts were around it,” Cooper-Sutton told Todd Piro Thursday. “I had no idea that we would be in the middle of an actual drive-by shooting.”
“In that moment, I knew that it was gunshots, and I knew that it was immediately to get down because a moving target is a hit target every time and not sure where the bullets were coming from, but I knew there were bullets, and my instinct immediately was to hit the ground, and I did,” she said.
The drive-by shooting occurred near a playground on Tuesday, forcing Cooper-Sutton to immediately drop to the ground.
“Get down. Just stay down and get down. It’s okay. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Just stay down and get down,” she said.
“Thank you for the blood of Jesus that covers us. Thank you, Father, for the blood of Jesus. Thank you, Lord,” she continued. “All right, we should be alright.”
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“This is something very common around Memphis,” she said. “You can be riding down the highway, the interstate, anywhere, and gunshots. I really can’t tell you. I just know, in that moment, and you play this moment over and over and over again in your head, because we do live in the city like we do right now, and the increase in gun violence and the drive-bys, at any moment, anything can happen.”
“You prepare yourself mentally. Should we be in that act or ready to be in that mode? No, but this is where we are right now,” she continued.
“I knew if I called on the name of the Lord that we would be okay, and that was my faith. No matter what the situation was or what the circumstance and what was going on at that time, I knew that when I called on that great name, our Lord Jesus Christ, we would be okay.”
According to Fox News, the suspect reportedly opened fire on a nearby apartment complex. No one was injured and no arrests have been made.