Deadly shooting near downtown hotel, suspect and victim identified | News

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – FOX13 is learning more about a deadly shooting that left a man dead in downtown Memphis on Friday. We also learn more about the person accused of pulling the trigger.

According to an affidavit, the defendant is Karl Loucks. He is charged with first degree murder. We also heard about his military background.

RELATED: Man arrested after fatal shooting outside downtown hotel

FOX13 spoke with residents in the area who said they heard gunshots.

“I heard 10 gunshots. Like pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, like that,” Frederick Bryant said.

Bryant described the sounds he heard early Friday morning as he and his family slept soundly.

“It woke us up from bed.”

Bryant says he lives near the area where gunfire erupted and believes the gunfire came from a recent deadly shooting downtown. Police report arriving at the Courtyard by Marriott at 40 North Front Street at 2:46 a.m.

Officers located the victim, Shaun Rhea, shot multiple times outside.

“People are being mean for no reason,” another witness, who said he heard the gunshots, told FOX13 anonymously.

Police said a witness identified Loucks in a lineup of six people. Loucks is being held without bail on a charge of first-degree murder.

FOX13 did some digging and found a video that identifies Loucks as an Army veteran. We learned that Loucks testified about an incident in Afghanistan in 2009, telling the court that a Taliban fighter fired on U.S. troops.

Loucks is identified as a former doctor.

A video posted by the Grid Squares Organization shows Loucks talking about his childhood in Memphis and sharing why he joined the military.

“My whole life I always wanted to be in the military. My grandfather went to West Point and graduated in 1950 as a World War II veteran,” Loucks explained in the video.

According to an affidavit, a witness told police he saw Loucks armed with a knife, pepper spraying the victim during this recent shooting. The witness also told police that Loucks entered his apartment and came out armed with a rifle and allegedly opened fire on the victim.

Rhea later died in hospital.