Frayser Man Indicted in Gun Death of Baby

Sept. 8, 2021 – A Frayser-area man has been indicted on criminally negligent homicide and other charges for his role in the shooting death of his girlfriend’s one-year-old son who was left in a car with another child and the man’s loaded handgun, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

A grand jury also indicted defendant Markiss Scurlock on felony counts of aggravated child neglect and aggravated child abuse. He is being held on $100,000 bond.

    The incident occurred shortly before 4 p.m. on May 22 this year on the parking lot of a food store in the 3300 block of North Watkins in Frayser.

    Investigators said Scurlock, 33, and his girlfriend had gone to the store with the two children to pick up groceries. After shopping, Scurlock loaded the groceries into the car while his girlfriend retrieved her bank card and went back inside to complete the purchase.

    Scurlock put the baby, Kingston Jenkins, in a car seat and put his six-year-old son on the seat next to him. Scurlock returned the shopping cart to the front of the store, and as he walked back to the car he heard a gunshot.

    He told investigators that as he opened the car door, his son jumped from the front seat to the back seat and said “I didn’t do it.” He then saw the baby with a gunshot wound to the head. The baby was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

    Scurlock’s pistol, which he had left in his wife’s purse, was on the front passenger seat partially in the holster.

   The case is being handled by Asst. Dist. Atty. Jermal Blanchard of the DA’s Special Victims Unit which prosecutes cases of child sexual abuse and severe physical abuse of child victims; rape of adult victims, and abuse of elderly and vulnerable adults.