In the quiet neighborhood of Cordova, Tennessee, a dispute between neighbors on an autumn afternoon in 2015 escalated into a fatal encounter that claimed the life of 31-year-old Terence Olridge. On October 11th, as Olridge was leaving his home on Long Shadow Lane to begin his shift as a Memphis police officer, he and his neighbor, Lorenzo Clark, exchanged words.
The argument prompted Olridge to make a U-turn and stop in front of Clark's house, where the verbal confrontation quickly turned violent.
Both men drew handguns and fired at each other. Olridge was struck multiple times, with gunshot wounds to his chest, right forearm, and left wrist. Despite his injuries, he managed to run back to his own home before collapsing. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries a short time later. In the immediate aftermath, Lorenzo Clark, who was 36 at the time, surrendered to police without incident.
Initially, investigators faced challenges in piecing together the precise sequence of events. Clark provided several different accounts of the shooting, and there was not enough evidence to immediately press murder charges. He was, however, charged with being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. The investigation continued for years, with forensic evidence and further analysis of the crime scene eventually providing the basis for more serious charges.
In December 2021, a grand jury indicted Lorenzo Clark, then 42, on a charge of second-degree murder for the death of Terence Olridge. He was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Two Rivers Violent Fugitive Task Force. Clark's wife, Natalie Clark, also faced legal consequences. She was charged with providing the firearms to her husband, knowing he was a convicted felon, and was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison for disposing of a firearm to a felon. Lorenzo Clark had previously pleaded guilty to a federal charge of felony firearm possession and was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison on that charge before the state murder indictment was handed down.
