Paul Shields was finishing up some janitorial work along Airways Boulevard early the morning of July 4. It wasn’t yet dawn.
He stood next to his scooter parked on the sidewalk when a northbound black sedan veered from its lane, bumped over the curb and slammed both the scooter and Shields.
The car, possibly a late-model Nissan, re-entered the road. The driver never even slowed. There were other cars around and so someone probably saw the incident and could help bring the driver to justice. A camera on a light pole caught the crash by sound as much as by video, which is grainy.
“Whoever it was, it was no Good Samaritan,” Shields said later.
He suffered a broken leg and ribs, plus bruises and cuts up and down the right side of his body and head. Even so, he was able to crawl to his phone on the asphalt parking lot nearby and call 911. Shields spent the next four days in the Trauma Unit at Regional One Hospital.
“I’m lucky. I could’ve been brain-dead or a quadriplegic,” he said.
Shields, 65, was a Melrose High School baseball star and then a scholarship player for The University of Memphis in the 1980s. He rollerskates for fun and exercise. He doesn’t believe the driver hit him on purpose.
“Fell asleep or something, probably… but he didn’t have to keep on driving — leaving me there, maybe to die!”
Shields isn’t alone.
Hit-and-run crimes involving pedestrians are all too common in Memphis and Shelby County. The same morning Shields was struck, a 72-year-old man was hit by a car in Whitehaven. Just 12 days later, a young man nearly was killed when struck by a car late at night on Robin Hood Lane near Park Avenue. In both cases, the drivers fled.
In fact, in the first nine months of 2026, Memphis Police have logged 276 incidents in which pedestrians were injured or killed and the drivers fled the scene. Twenty-seven people died. In all of 2025, 302 “incapacitating hit-and-run” cases were recorded. So far this year, warrants or arrests were made in 38 cases — four thanks to CrimeStoppers tips — leaving 238 unsolved.
As in most hit-and-run accidents, police reported that the car that struck Shields probably had front-end and windshield damage. Investigators say that if family members, neighbors or co-workers notice a car arriving at home or work with new body damage or dried blood, suspicions should be aroused.
Anyone with information on any pedestrian-involved crash in which the driver fled the scene is urged to contact CrimeStoppers at 528-CASH (2274). Every call or text is anonymous. If information leads to a warrant or arrest, the tipster will be eligible for a cash award.
Drivers have specific legal duties
in a pedestrian-involved accident
Under Tennessee law, leaving the scene of an accident in which a pedestrian is hurt or killed is a serious felony and carries criminal penalties. The law also requires several duties of the driver involved in an accident where a pedestrian is struck:
- Stop immediately and stay close to the scene without blocking traffic if possible.
- Render aid; make arrangements or help transport an injured person to the hospital.
- Provide information, including name, address, vehicle registration, driver’s license and proof of insurance, if available.
- Remain at the scene until all legal requirements are fulfilled.
In many cases, an accident involving a pedestrian is not the fault of the driver. It can happen at night and where there are few lights. The walker may not have taken care to keep away from vehicle traffic areas, or is wearing dark clothing.
What is certain is that a driver who flees such an accident is at fault and has broken the law. It may seem unnecessary to express this, but under any conceivable moral law — a driver should always stop, help an injured person and just do the right thing.
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Rhodes College Student Drew Rainer, 22, was one of five people inside a Midtown home when three or four men in tightly-bound hoodies kicked in the door and held everyone at gunpoint, They demanded electronic devices and more. Soon shots were fired. Rainer was killed and another person was injured.
