A 20-year-old man was being held without bond in Memphis on Monday after a weekend crime spree in which he allegedly shot a teen dead, wounded two women and carjacked two vehicles, one with children inside.
Courdarion Craft was arrested on Sunday and formally charged Monday with first-degree murder in the shooting death of 18-year-old Fares Shihab, whom Craft allegedly gunned down at the smoke shop where he worked, WREG-TV reported.
The suspect was also charged with aggravated robbery, carjacking, two counts of aggravated child abuse and two counts of evading arrest, one a felony and one a misdemeanor.
“At the time of these incidents, the suspect was out of jail on a $100,000 bond for criminal attempt of first-degree murder and criminal attempt especially aggravated robbery,” Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis said in a statement.
That was in relation to a November 2023 incident, WREG reported.
Craft had failed to appear at a hearing on Friday for those earlier charges, the Shelby County district attorney’s office said in a statement Monday, noting that the DA had recommended revoking bail entirely. A judge revoked all bail for Craft on Monday.
On Sunday, police said, he accosted a woman and carjacked her blue Nissan Maxima, threatening to kill her if she called police. She and her two children fled as he drove away. Soon after, cops responded to a shooting report at a smoke and vape shop and found a man shot dead, they said in an affidavit. The shop’s security video showed someone arriving in a blue Nissan Maxima and shooting the man, then snatching an AK-style firearm and merchandise and driving away. Police said the motive was “greed.”
The suspect then changed vehicles in a second carjacking and started driving a white 2016 Dodge Charger, abandoning the Nissan, police said. Police caught up with him and nabbed him after he fled on foot.
Cops found two wounded women and a boy with a dog bite at one of two remaining crime scenes where Craft fired shots, authorities said. One of the women was a 21-year-old shot in the stomach.
The rampage set off an hours-long manhunt on Sunday after police connected the four crime scenes to a man wearing a black ski mask, black hoodie, red gloves, green pants and purple shoes.
With News Wire Services
