Memphis mother heartbroken after daughter among two teens killed in shooting; son survives

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The mother of a teenage girl killed in a weekend double shooting shared her unimaginable pain and grief to voice frustration about the violence and bloodshed that continue to grip Memphis streets.

Naterria Douglas, 14, was killed about 1:10 a.m. Saturday, according to the Memphis Police Department.

The shooting is believed to have happened after Douglas, her 16-year-old brother and her brother’s best friend, a 17-year-old, left a gas station at Knight Arnold Road and Ridgeway Road, according to police and the girl’s mother, Irene Douglas.

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The 16-year-old boy had recently began driving for DoorDash to make extra money as family finances had grown tight, Irene Douglas said Monday.

“I don’t know how I’m going to get through this,” Douglas said through tears from her home. “I don’t understand but it happened; it did happen.”

Douglas’ understanding of what happened is still fuzzy, coming from her 16-year-old son, the shooting’s lone survivor.

Getting back on the road after stopping for gas at Knight Arnold and Ridgeway roads, a black Dodge Charger pulled beside them, she said. It was occupied by two men and a woman, according to police, when someone inside opened fire.

Naterria took her final breath after being hit as her brother watched.

“I feel guilty. I feel like it’s my fault,” Irene Douglas said.

A straight-A student at Raleigh-Egypt High, pictures and video are now all she has to help her remember her daughter, unsure of how to help her still living son as she, herself, grapples with picking up the shattered pieces of her own heart.

“[Naterria] was a TikTok lover. … My child was robbed of her life. … I don’t know how to cater to [my son’s] needs because I have needs, too,” she said, sobbing.

Police have no one in custody.

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