Man who caught homicide suspect speaks about Sunday encounter

JACKSON, Tenn. — A man says he held a suspect in a Sunday morning homicide until police arrived.

Robert Miller was working at Furniture World Discount Warehouse Sunday morning when someone saw a man breaking into his daughter’s car at the store. He immediately jumped into action.

“By time the doors shut, I came down the steps,” Miller said. “He had my daughter’s door open. So I came in and just jumped to the side right behind him. He looked up with the doors shut, and all he saw was Justin. I asked him what he was doing, and that’s when he told me he was getting stuff out of his woman’s car. He had his arm on the door like this, and he reached back in to grab a screwdriver. So that’s when I under hooked his arm and grabbed him by his neck.”

Little did he know, that man was the suspect in a homicide that happened just hours before on the corner of Hollywood Drive and Old Hickory Boulevard.

“He started reaching for his pocket, and I said no way in hell that’s going to happen, and I started grabbing, holding his hand. And he eventually I believe got the gun worked up on a pair of shorts on the inside,” Miller said.

But, the man did not get far.

“I said, ‘Put your hands right now across the passenger seat, or I’m going to mess you up,'” Miller said.

That’s when Miller says he held the suspect until the Jackson Police Department could arrive on the scene.

“I had his face down, with his shoulders touching behind his neck right here in this area,” Miller said.

About five minutes later, Jackson police arrived and arrested the man.

“Bad timing for him, wrong day for him. The situation just turned out good,” Miller said.

Police have identified the suspect as 35-year-old Eugene Richmond, of Memphis. The victim in the shooting has been identified as 18-year-old Isaiah Day, of Jackson. You can find more about Richmond’s arrest here.