Prominent pastor who spoke out against crime on Fox News is shot dead by woman outside of Memphis bar, police say

A beloved pastor was shot and killed by a woman outside of a bar in Memphis according to Tennessee police.

Forty-two-year-old Samantha Marion pleaded not guilty to one charge of voluntary manslaughter in the death of 58-year-old Pastor Ricky Floyd. Police said they were called to a shooting at 1:20 a.m. on Wednesday and found Floyd shot to death near Momma’s Bar and Grill on Kentucky St.

‘He was tireless in his efforts to improve the community and to work on a lot of things, including crime.’

An affidavit said that the shooting occurred after an argument between Floyd, Marion, and two other people at Momma’s. Floyd reportedly left the bar and the three others followed afterward.

“While talking outside, they advised that Floyd returned and became irate and aggressive towards all three of them,” police said.

Surveillance video captured Floyd grabbing Marion’s phone and throwing it to the ground as well as throwing a beer, according to police. He gets into a car and begins to drive away but then stops and confronts Marion again. That’s when police said he backs away from her, falls to the ground, and does not get back up.

He was declared dead at the scene.

Police said one of the people with Marion told them she shot Floyd.

“Pastor Floyd was a beloved member of the community,” Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said. “He was tireless in his efforts to improve the community and to work on a lot of things, including crime. His death is clearly a tragedy.”

The Republican Party of Shelby County posted a video of Floyd on Fox News advocating for crime victims against lax prosecutorial polices.

“We’ve done so much protecting the criminal that we have now put the law-abiding citizen in jail,” he said on the video, “because they don’t know if their wife can go to the grocery store and come back or if their daughter can go to the gas station and come back.”

Floyd was the pastor at the Pursuit of God Church.

Marion faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of voluntary manslaughter.

Footage from the scene of the shooting can be viewed on the news video report from WREG-TV on YouTube.

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