Paula Appleberry: Woman Shot Dead Driving Her Grandkids from Party in Memphis
Paula Appleberry, 54, of Horn Lake, Mississippi, was just trying to get home and continue enjoying her family.
On Sunday, February 4, 2024, in northwest Memphis, Appleberry was driving her grandkids from a birthday party when a hail of gunshots hit the vehicle.
According to Tierney Irby, who was a passenger in the car and the daughter of the victim, the vehicle had two children and a 7-month-old baby.
“I just hear gunshots. And I said, ‘Go mama, go! Speed up, let’s get out of here,'” Irby told a local media outlet. “I felt her speed up. I didn’t realize that she had been hit already. So while we were speeding up, we also were going off road and that’s when we ended up hitting the pole.”
According to law enforcement, along with Appleberry, three children and a 25-year-old woman, were injured in the shooting and crash that resulted from it.
Appleberry, suffering from a gunshot wound, slowly died at the scene.
After the shooting, family members, General Electric co-workers and members of her community in Mississippi came together to mourn her at a balloon release.
“This was senseless. This was senseless. There’s no other way around it. No, my mother was not targeted. No, that bullet was not meant for her,” Irby told TV station WREG. “If this was a case of mistaken identity, I don’t see how you could mistake someone with God’s number one fan on their tag.”
“She was genuine. She was loyal. She was understanding. She was peaceful at times, at times but she was a mother nonetheless.” her son Jarvis Irby told the TV station.
“She sang like an angel. So God gained a beautiful angel, a singing angel,” Irby said. “She was a God-fearing woman. She was the sweetest lady. She was so loud but she was so sweet. She would never harm everybody. You always enjoyed to see her smile, when she smiled it lights up the room with those chubby cheeks.”
A GoFundMe set up by the family says:
On Sunday, February 4th, 2024, a loving mother, grandmother, sister, and friend, Paula Appleberry, was taken from us in senseless gun violence in the streets of Memphis, TN. Whether you knew her as Mama, Granny, Paula, or Red, she meant something to all of us. She had spent her day with her family and was heading to take her grandchildren home. She was about 2 minutes away when this tragedy occurred. She leaves behind her two biological children, Jarvis and Tierney, and twins, Terri and Telarrian, who have to put together the pieces of how to get through this tough time of losing their mother. As a family, we are all devastated and loss for the words in the loss of Paula Appleberry. We want to give Paula the celebration that she deserves as she goes on home with her Precious Lord.
Memphis Police have launched an investigation, but only know as of now that the suspects fled in a white sedan.
Anyone with information that could help detectives is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 901-528-CASH.
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