A North Memphis man who fired a gun into a mini-van during an argument last year has been indicted for the death of a 4-year-old boy who was struck in the chest as he sat in his booster seat inside the van, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.
A grand jury indicted Terrell J. Woods, 42, on counts of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. He is free on a $500,000 bond.
The incident occurred on April 3, 2021, as the boy’s father drove up to a residence in the 1000 block of West Lexington Circle to drop off a friend. Woods walked up to the vehicle and began arguing with the passenger, shouting “Y’all been hating on me!”
Woods then pulled a gun and began shooting into the van. He missed the man he was trying to hit, but one of the bullets struck young Tavius Taylor Jr. in the chest. The small boy was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The case is being handled by Chief Prosecutor Eric Christensen of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Unit (SPU) which prosecutes cases involving the most vulnerable victims in our community. The SVU prosecutes cases of rape, child sexual and severe physical abuse, and elder and vulnerable adult abuse.
The SVU is an expansion of the multi-agency Child Protection Investigative Team (CPIT).
