Dinner Party Guests get Held-Up in Front Yard

(Memphis) Shawn Fitzgerald says it caught everyone off-guard.

In just a moment, he and his neighbors became the victims of crime.

“He asked who wanted to be the first person shot,” said Fitzgerald.

Those words, he says, came from a robber, a man on a bicycle that showed up at the tail-end of Shawn’s neighborhood party.

He says his last guests were held-up in his front yard.

Shawn says the criminal pointed a gun at the five of them and demanded their wallets.

He says that everyone there obeyed.

“It was just very surreal,” said Fitzgerald.  “We just went through the motions and he told us to go back in the house and you kind of said a prayer that he didn`t shoot you in the back as you were walking in.”

The crime happened late Saturday night in what people call the “tight-knit” neighborhood of Humes Heights.

We’re told after the robbery, one of the victims, a firefighter, went home and grabbed his gun and went out looking for the criminal.

He says he found the suspect in Orange Mound and that he looked him dead in the eye at the corner of Carnes and Baltimore.

The firefighter says he then called police, but that officers couldn’t catch the man.

“What do you think about the firefighter that went after him?,” asked Reporter Sabrina Hall.

“I probably would have done the same thing,” said Neighbor Richard Cormeny.

While the criminal still roams free, neighbors who say they left the party early are now watching their backs.

“Really on-guard,” said Neighbor Keith Lawrence. “We`re in shock.”

Residents in Humes Heights say they have a strong neighborhood watch program but they plan to step-up patrols.

They also hope police will choose to have a stronger presence in the area.