Perry Hughes killed roommates over $10: cops
Perry Hughes (Shelby County Jail)
A 34-year-old man in Tennessee has been arrested for allegedly fatally shooting one of his roommates after arguing over $10 while celebrating a third roommate’s birthday. Perry Hughes was taken into custody Tuesday and charged with second-degree murder for being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun and tampering with evidence, Law&Crime records show.
Memphis Police Department officers responded to a call about a shooting at an apartment building on the 1500 block of Prescott Street around 5:02 am on March 14, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime. When they arrived at the scene, two people who lived at the residence contacted officers and said their other two roommates – Hughes and a man identified in the document as Antonio – had gotten into an argument that involved ended with Hughes allegedly shooting Antonio multiple times.
Officers entered the residence and found Hughes “barricaded” in his bedroom, the affidavit said.
“After a brief pause, officers were able to persuade Perry Hughes out of his room and take him into custody,” police wrote. “Officials then found the victim upside down and covered in trash in a municipal trash can. The trash can was in Perry Hughes’ bedroom.”
Paramedics responded to the home and pronounced Antonio dead at the scene.
Police say they observed two handguns “in plain sight” in Hughes’ bedroom and noted that the hallway floor was wet and appeared to have been “recently mopped”.
Investigators quickly obtained a search warrant for the apartment, where they found several bullet casings in the kitchen, three bullet holes in the walls of the kitchen and dining room, and blood in the hallway and on the baseboards, according to the affidavit. Police also say they found blood in a “swirl pattern” on the bathroom floor.
In Hughes’ bedroom, police allegedly found three firearms – two 9mm pistols and a 22-caliber pistol – as well as a mop with what appeared to be blood on the mop head in a bucket filled with what appeared to be bloody water.
Authorities removed Antonio’s body from the bin and found he had been shot at “multiple times”.
Police learned that the night before, Hughes planned to celebrate the birthday of one of the roommates who was not involved in the shooting by drinking and playing dominoes, the affidavit said. The other two roommates told police that during the night Hughes and Antonio both “got drunk and started fighting over $10.”
The argument escalated and became physical, with both men allegedly pointing guns at each other before Antonio “put his gun up” and said he “wanted to fight Hughes,” housemates allegedly told police.
“[A roommate] stated that Antonio then moved to meet Hughes and that Hughes fired a shot that missed,” the affidavit reads. “[The roommate] then stated that Hughes then fired another shot, which he thought hit Antonio, who then covered his face and turned as if to run away. [The roommate] Then Hughes advised to discharge Antonio.
Hughes – who was convicted of aggravated assault in 2014 – was booked into the Shelby County Jail on March 15 and is scheduled to appear in court on Friday.
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