Samantha Marion, the woman who has been charged with the fatal shooting of prominent Memphis, Tennessee, Pastor Ricky Floyd on Wednesday morning, is now reportedly on suicide watch in jail as her mother insists she was defending herself after she was attacked.
“Anybody in any situation, when you become afraid, you become afraid,” Marion’s mother, who was not identified by name, told WREG at the home she shares with her daughter. “And you know fear will drive you to that, and she had to be awfully scared.”
Police say Marion, 42, called police to Momma’s Bar and Kitchen, located at 855 Kentucky Road in Memphis, at about 1:17 a.m. Wednesday and confessed to shooting Floyd, who served as the senior lead pastor of Pursuit of God Church in Frayser.
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Before the shooting, Floyd, 58, and Marion, who were with two others at the time, had an argument inside Momma’s Bar and Kitchen, according to police records cited by Fox13. Witnesses allege the argument led the two outside the business, where the pastor became “irate and aggressive.”
Video surveillance footage reportedly shows Floyd throwing Marion’s phone and a beer can before hopping into his vehicle and driving away. Marion then allegedly walked into the roadway and appeared to record the pastor’s vehicle with her phone. Floyd is then shown returning to the scene and confronting Marion before a witness separates them. As Floyd backed away, police said Marion walked toward the pastor, who was then seen falling to the ground and never getting up again.
Marion was charged with voluntary manslaughter and currently remains in jail on a $100,000 bond after pleading not guilty at her first court appearance on Thursday morning, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports.
“This is not my daughter’s character, and she was defending herself,” Marion’s mother told WREG. “Maybe in her mind she was defending the two friends she was with.”
It was unclear Friday what the nature of the relationship between Floyd and Marion was. When asked why the married pastor was at a bar with Marion after 1 a.m., Floyd’s media liaison, Telisa Franklin, told The Christian Post that she was unable to comment on the relationship and preferred to focus on his achievements as a respected leader of the Memphis community.
“We would love for people to remember him as a true servant. He was a transformative leader. He transformed the Frayser community,” Franklin told CP, noting that his church and family were still processing his death.
Floyd leaves behind his wife, Sheila, three adult children, one daughter-in-law and two granddaughters, according to the church’s website. The pastor is also listed as the driver behind several community initiatives.
He served as the president of Eden Estates Apartments, a 52-unit complex in the Frayser community, and president of The Husband Institute, Inc., a boys-to-men mentoring program. He was the founder of the School of Marriage Enhancement.
“You know, this (Frayser) is a very poverty-stricken community. He created what we call Black Street Wall Street, with the strip mall,” Franklin told CP. “He made sure he owns the apartment complex where we are able to house people with affordable housing. … He was truly a leader that cared about God, his family, and the people. … He would always go out of his way to see and to serve someone else.”
Marion’s mother said she is sorry the pastor died, but she is also heartbroken about what is happening with her daughter.
“I am sorry that there has been a death,” she told WREG. “I am sorry for the family.”
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