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Subscribe to RSSA member of music legend Jerry Lee Lewis’ band was shot and killed in a Memphis shootout on Sunday morning, police told WMCTV.com. An unidentified 16-year-old was killed at the same time.
B.B. Cunningham, 70, was moonlighting as a security guard at an apartment complex when he heard a shot and went to investigate, police told The Commercial Appeal newspaper. Both Cunningham and the teen were dead by the time police arrived on the scene.
"I don't know much about him but he was always nice to me we always talked a lot and sometimes he helped me out when I was having trouble with my vehicle," apartment complex resident Judy Baladez told WMCTV.com about Cunningham.
Cunningham most recently toured with Sweden’s The Cadillac Band in July.
He was a member of the Memphis group "The Hombres" in the mid-1960s and co-wrote the group’s hit song in 1967, "Let It Out, Let it All Hang Out." He joined Lewis’ band in 1997.
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How sad Condolences to the family. I can't get over the facts he was still touring at 70 or that he had to moonlight as a security guard not to mention he died because someone wanted some 16 year old kid dead. Sad,sad,sad.
I agree, a sad story all around.
I didn't know Jerry Lee Lewis was still alive.
Yes but he separated from his cousin years ago and red as ever. Great balls of fire that was good music.
This is so horrible I hadn't heard the name Jerry Lee Lewis name in so many years I thought he was on the otherside of curtain he is now but in a horrible way.
May God give his entire family the strength to go through this really tough time as I am certain he will!!!
Jerry Lee Lewis is still on this side of the curtain and wishing greatly for a curtain call. B.B. Cunningham is as you say on the other side of the curtain.
As far as god goes if you believe in him he caused it as all things and certainly could have stopped it. But maybe he just likes to play the consoling persona sometimes.
On it,
You are in error, at least if you're looking at it from the christian viewpoint. He didn't "cause" all things in the sense that you're speaking of. He created humanity with a free will. We are not marionette puppets. God may know the future and what someone's choices will be, good and bad, but he doesn't possess someone's body to make them perform actions. It is always by their choice alone, though he may encourage or discourage certain things by the spiritual and physical consequences that follow their choices. Yes, God has the power to stop things if he wishes, but it would be a negation of the free will he endowed mankind with, theologically speaking. Back to Sunday School for you. What I just said every 7 year old Catholic child knows before recieving their 1st Communion. If you're going to be critical of God, or of what the common concepts of God are, then please know what you're talking about. It will be of great assistance to you in preventing you from making such basic errors.
I would agree with you merlin if you could show me any proof to back it up. Proof is not what someone told you or wrote. Also I won't accept I talked to God and he told me as proof either unless we are together and we both talk to him. Please give me advanced notice of that meeting so I can prepare some questions for him that I'm sure you would like to know the answers to also.
On it; my first question to god, " Are you a him or her?" Both you and merlin refer to god as him. My sense of the WHOLE issue is, you may be right or you may be wrong since NO ONE really knows.
merlin wrote in part; in post 4,2;"
"On it,
You are in error, at least if you're looking at it from the christian viewpoint. He didn't "cause" all things in the sense that you're speaking of. He created humanity with a free will. We are not marionette puppets. God may know the future and what someone's choices will be, good and bad, but he doesn't possess someone's body to make them perform actions. It is always by their choice alone..."
(Laughter) Omni=all. Omni-present. Omni-potent. Omni-scient (all knowing). There's no such thing as 'Free Will'. First, no matter how much I 'will' it, I cannot flap my arms and fly cross-country. Secondly, all are mere actors in a pointless play; hitting their marks and speaking their lines as scripted eons ago when 'God' shat the universe into being.
Omni characteristics sound good, but they self-destruct under the weight of their own internal contradictions.
(Paraphrasing the 'Red Queen'); "Often, I believe in six contradictory things before breakfast. It just takes a little practice".
We need more guns.
Google - Gun Town USA
After almost 30+years, Kennesaw, GA, where the town requires EVERY household to have and maintain a gun...
Some of the lowest crimes rates in the Nation, "Top 10 Town for Families" by Family Circle Magazine , etc...
NO gun suicides and 3+gun related deaths (2 @ a School where guns are out-lawed), during this time...
Now show me a place where keeping the guns away from the honest citizens has worked...
Japan (almost ZERO guns) - the suicide capital of the world 2x the USA or UK rates...
The UK - most violent country in the EU, USA, South Africa, etc - according to the UN & a EU report. But they banned guns two decades ago...
Possibly a case of an armed punk trying to rob an armed citizen -- and the punk got what he deserved. Too bad about the loss of a fine musician.
Memphis is the WORST city in the United States!
there is no best or worst except in ones own mind.
That would be Chicago, IL...
Where Rahm Emanuel, increased the regulations to own a gun, after becoming Mayor...
16 Jun 2012 – Chicago's murder rate is currently quadruple that of New York and double Los Angeles' rate...
Chicago has more gun related deaths than the number of US Troops killed in Afghanistan, this year...
The Gang Wars are at the root of Chicago's high murder rate...
But it doesn't get better if you are poor - The homicide rate in the poorest neighborhoods was 11 times the rate in the least-poor neighborhoods...
Condolences to the famlies affected. I've been a fan of "The Killer" since the fifties. Jerry Lee Lewis is one of the very few players in the music game whose talent actually surpasses his ego---and Zeus knows, he has a monstrosity of an ego! R.I.P. B. B. Cunningham---you done good lad.
Some old dirty scum bag bagged him, sure as hell he can't provide the music this man did. Sorry to hear, R.I.P, dear fellow, condolences to his family, friends and associates
At his age, still touring, still working... one of the Baby Boomer "parasites" so often denigrated on the Vine.
Rest in peace, Mr. Cunningham.
I'm sort of confused here. Is the article implying the 16 year old was another victim or that he was involved in the shootout as an aggressor? It DOES make a difference, you know.
Either way, Mr Cunningham exhibited bravery in going to the shootout to do his job of making sure his charges were secure and safe, however poor or good his training was in preparing him to handle the problem. My hat is off to this brave man and my condolences go out to his mourning family and friends Sometimes security guards do not get credit for the danger of their jobs, being mockingly referred to as "rent-a-cops" or worse. Yet they give their lives helping members of their communities stay safe and prosperous.
Here in the USA a security guard can be hired to guard anything from construction sites to church bingos to factories to pharmacies to hotels to embassies and consulates. I know because I've guarded each of them myself while working security (before someone here again calls me a liar about guarding the embassies and consulates, keep in mind that the US Marines guard AMERICAN embassies and consulates. Other nations supply their own security measures as they see fit). A great injustice and disadvantage is that they're often sent to do their jobs unarmed while at the same time being required to wear a uniform and badge, which makes them a target. I surely do hope that Mr Cunningham wasn't put in that position, especially if he was working in a high crime/ gang area.
Well, as I said, my hat is off to him. I truly do hope that his community was worthy of his sacrifice. Apparently he thought so. God Bless to his family and friends and RIP B.B. !
Perhaps he say the man who killed the teen, and that man killed him also to eliminate the witness.
Or, maybe the teen shot at someone and missed, and when Cunningham arrived on the scene they shot each other.
Or, maybe after shooting the teen Cunningham was shot by the teen's partner.
What does the CSI team has to say?
A large proportion of Memphis is ghetto; but it's better than Baltimore or Newark. At least here you're permitted to defend yourself.
It's a hard, hard world.
...Amen.
God Speed Mr. Cunningham.
wait.. you need a SECURITY guard at an apartment complex???
hmm I WONDER "who" lives there.
Wonder who lives in the apartment complex or why they need a security guard??? Have you ever been to Memphis? Its not much different than any other big inner city. Like Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Philly etc..., ....mostly ghetto and violent neighborhoods....just my opinion...but if there is an apartment complex or housing area in or around Memphis...they all need security guards...That being said, it is sad that a fine musician lost his life providing security services to a community in a city he loved.
He wasn't killed he was murdered by a person committing an illegal act. He was doing his job and the fact that he was able to kill his attacker or one of his attackers, he was murdered not killed.