Gunman Indicted in Killing, Wounding of Unintended Victims

Aug. 26, 2021 – A fight involving two couples and the death of an innocent neighbor earlier this year has led to the murder indictment of one man and aggravated assault charges against his girlfriend, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

A grand jury indicted Cliff Swift, 20, on counts of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and employment of a firearm in the commission of a dangerous felony. His girlfriend, Marveona Roper, 19, was indicted on two counts of aggravated assault.

The incident happened around 8 p.m. on Feb. 7 this year at an apartment in the 600 block of Mississippi Blvd. in South Memphis where Roper and another woman were involved in a fight. Police said Roper threatened the woman with a knife and cut the woman’s cousin.

An investigation showed that Swift fired a shot at the other woman’s boyfriend, but struck the woman in the lower leg by mistake. When the boyfriend ran out of the apartment and into the breezeway, investigators said Swift fired again, with the bullet going through the window of another apartment.

As police were wrapping up their investigation at the scene of the fight, they noticed the bullet hole in the neighbor’s apartment. Inside they found 22-year-old DaJae Davis, dead from a gunshot wound to the chest. Her two-year-old daughter who was next to her was not injured.

The case is being handled by Chief Prosecutor Theresa McCusker of the District Attorney’s Vertical Team 1 which prosecutes cases in General Sessions Division 7 and in Criminal Court Division 1.