A Memphis man who says he opened fire because a teen car thief made him fear for his life is now facing seven felonies after prosecutors alleged his bullets also reached a house where children were sleeping.
Demarcus Collier, 27, had seen someone at his car on a security camera before going outside, where Action News 5 reported he encountered a male in his driveway and a red sedan nearby.
The tense confrontation, investigators say, escalated when the person outside stretched out his arm as though he had a weapon and ordered Collier to “get your *** back in the house.”
Collier has maintained he believed he was in danger when he fired several shots, hitting the teen as the red sedan left the scene, according to the local outlet.
The gunfire became a felony case against Collier because prosecutors allege the rounds did not stop with the person in the driveway. Action News 5 reported that some bullets apparently hit a vehicle and a room with children inside, leading to aggravated assault and vandalism charges.
🎇Honor America’s 250th Anniversary!!!🎇 Get your 2026 Heritage Foundation commemorative membership card ➡️➡️➡️ ACTIVATE YOUR MEMBERSHIP NOW!!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Collier’s great-uncle defended him as a working family man who responded to what he believed was a threat outside his home.
“He’s a hardworking man, family man, doing the right things in life,” the great-uncle commented. “He reacted like any human being should do, you know? Because, it could’ve been the other way.”
The wounded teen later made it one street over, rang a neighbor’s doorbell and collapsed in the driveway.
“Please! I just got shot. I got shot. Call the police please,” the teen pleaded on surveillance video. “Please. Call the ambulance. Please.”
Police later said the teen had been struck in the chest before he was taken to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in critical condition.
Another family’s home was also pulled into the case after one shot allegedly punched into a room where four children had been sleeping.
Their father told police he had just gotten out of the shower around 4:40 a.m. when a shot hit the house, sending dust and debris into the bedroom before more gunfire followed.
No one inside that home was hurt, and police recovered nine shell casings before Collier was later released on $30,000 bond.
The Memphis shooting mirrors another self-defense dispute in Florida, where a father who pulled a pistol during a confrontation with teenagers accused of bullying his son over pizza will not face charges, local media reported.
The Florida father had driven his son to a bus stop on Sept. 18 to talk with the driver about an attack the previous day, when his son was allegedly targeted after refusing to hand over pizza from a “church fellowship program” at a local high school, according to a report provided by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.
The same student accused of accosting the boy confronted the father at the bus stop as students on the bus yelled and the 14-year-old got off, Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek told WPBF.
“Now you have students on the bus that are yelling. You have the 14-year-old boy that came off the bus that’s yelling, screaming at the dad,” Budensiek detailed to the West Palm Beach-area station.
A second teen then arrived and confronted the father, with the police report noting that the teen had previously been suspended for drug possession.
As both teens came toward the father, the report says, he displayed a firearm and pointed it at them, making them back away.
Budensiek described the father as trying to calm things down before the confrontation escalated, while also saying the teens looked older than their ages.
“You have two young men who look like grown men that are happening upon the dad, going at the dad and yelling at the dad,” Budensiek explained.
The school bus driver described the two students as having “ongoing behavioral issues” serious enough that she had considered quitting, according to the report, while the father’s son had ridden the bus for two years and “had never been a problem.”
Video from the bus recorded both the Sept. 17 and Sept. 18 incidents.
Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, enacted in 2005, removed the duty to retreat outside the home, added civil and criminal immunity and created a presumption of reasonable fear of death or great bodily harm when someone is unlawfully entering a home or vehicle.
In Texas, another violent confrontation brought arrests after 14-year-old Nataya Carter was airlifted from Livingston High School with injuries her family says came from an unprovoked cafeteria attack.
Family members told KTRK News that Nataya was flown from the school, about 74 miles northeast of Houston, after she was “assaulted, walked up on” and “continuously hit by two ladies.”
The fight unfolded in the Livingston High School cafeteria on a Wednesday, when Nataya became involved with two unidentified girls before other students joined in.
After reviewing footage, relatives told KHOU 11 News that more than 10 seconds appeared to pass before a faculty member stepped between the students.
Relatives said Nataya was thrown into a brick wall, hit her head and began seizing. She remained hospitalized and continued having seizures after being transported to Memorial Hermann by life flight.
Five people, including four minors, were arrested after the confrontation, though police have not disclosed each suspect’s alleged role or released the adult suspect’s identity.
Livingston ISD told parents the matter was being handled through both school discipline and legal channels.
“We are addressing this incident through both school disciplinary action and legal channels,” the district announced.
The district also said students would be held accountable “in accordance with district policy and applicable law.”
Nataya’s family has argued the school also deserves scrutiny because adults were allegedly present in the cafeteria before staff intervened.
“This could’ve been prevented,” the teenager’s aunt, Sandria Carter, told KHOU 11 News. “So why wasn’t it?”
