Mass Shooting Spree Suspect Ezekiel Kelly Receives July 2025 Trial Date

Ezekiel Kelly, the suspect in a spree of mass shootings from 2022, received a 2025 trial date this week, as prosecutors seek the death penalty.
A Memphis judge on Friday set a trial date for July 14, 2025.
Kelly, 22, has entered a not guilty plea to more than two dozen state charges stemming from a September 2022 mass shooting that triggered a citywide shelter-in-place order and a frantic manhunt.
He faces charges in the killings of Dewayne Tunstall, Richard Clark and Allison Parker. In a March 2023 press conference, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy announced that prosecutors intend to pursue the death penalty if Kelly is convicted of first-degree murder.
Mulroy cited several factors behind the decision to pursue the death penalty, including the random nature of the mass shooting and Kelly’s prior conviction for aggravated assault.
According to a police affidavit, at least three witnesses observed Kelly fatally shoot Tunstall during a gathering at a Memphis home around 1 a.m. local time on September 7, 2022. Later that day, Kelly allegedly shot Clark and Parker while driving through Memphis and livestreaming parts of his actions, authorities said.
Police reported that three additional individuals were injured in the shootings. Kelly’s indictment also includes charges of reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, committing an act of terrorism, theft of property and evading arrest.
The shootings prompted the shutdown of Memphis’ public transit system, the lockdown of two college campuses and the suspension of a minor league baseball game.
Authorities said Kelly carjacked at least two vehicles before his arrest, which came after he crashed a stolen car while attempting to evade police.
Initially, police reported four fatalities, but later revised the count to three after determining that one death was unrelated to the shooting spree. The violence occurred just months after Kelly was released early from a three-year prison sentence stemming from two shootings in 2020.
In February 2020, a then-17-year-old Kelly was charged as an adult with attempted first-degree murder and other offenses for two shootings carried out just hours apart. While both victims survived, they declined to cooperate with prosecutors, court records show. Kelly later pleaded guilty to reduced charges of aggravated assault in April 2021.
Kelly was sentenced to three years in prison but was released after serving just over two years, including time credited for his pre-plea detention.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.