A beloved Memphis church director was killed during an attempted robbery in broad daylight, authorities said Saturday.
74-year-old Stephen Pearl was ambushed by at least two suspects outside his residence on Watson Street at around 6 a.m.
Police said that the assailants were traveling down the street before they spotted Pearl and decided to rob him.
They hopped out of the vehicle and attacked Pearl with a gun, fatally hitting his head, before taking off in their silver SUV.
The victim succumbed early Monday to his injuries leaving behind his wife, three children, and five great-grandchildren.
“It was just very surreal,” a friend of the Christ Church Memphis' director of facilities said following his tragic passing.
“Somebody you see on a daily basis and have conversations with, the next thing you know, they're out cold on the ground.”
The man said that the neighborhood, where Pearl and his family had been living for less than a year, was a great area with great residents.
“Bad people come in here and they case the place out and they look for targets, easy targets,” he said.
“At six in the morning on a Saturday, there are not too many people out, and if you're the only one out and that's what they're looking for, there's too much of that going on.”
