WREG News Channel 3 reporter Harrison Klopp says a Memphis man is now facing serious charges after what he insists was a split-second act of self-defense inside and just outside his own home.
The man, Marques Griffin, spoke exclusively to WREG and told Klopp he wants people to hear his side, because the official charge – voluntary manslaughter – makes it sound like something he says he never intended.
Klopp reports that Griffin told police he shot an intruder three times after finding him inside his East Memphis apartment. The intruder later died, and Griffin was arrested.
Right away, the story lands in that uneasy space where fear, timing, and perception matter. A person can truly believe they were protecting their life, and still end up in handcuffs if investigators think the threat was no longer immediate.
Griffin Says A Noise Woke Him Up
Harrison Klopp reports that, according to court records, the shooting happened Thursday morning at an apartment in the 1200 block of Robin Hood Lane. Griffin told investigators he was asleep when a noise woke him up, and he believed it was coming from upstairs at first.
Griffin described the moment to Klopp in plain, shaken language. “He came about 2, 2:30 in the morning, came breaking the window off,” Griffin said, explaining how he heard something and felt pulled to get up.
Griffin told Klopp that when he went to check, he saw an unknown man inside his living room. “As soon as I seen him on my living room floor, I can’t believe this is happening,” Griffin said, recalling that he confronted him and demanded to know what he was doing there.
Klopp reports Griffin said the intruder claimed he didn’t know anyone lived there. That detail is strange on its face, because even if it were true, it doesn’t erase the fear of waking up to someone who came through a window in the middle of the night.
This is also where stories like this get emotionally complicated. Fear doesn’t politely wait while people exchange explanations, and when someone believes a break-in is underway, their body can be flooded with panic before their brain can sort out the facts.
The Front Door Moment That Changed Everything
Harrison Klopp’s report says the confrontation didn’t end with the intruder still inside the apartment. Klopp explains that after the encounter, the man walked out the front door.
According to Klopp, Griffin then followed the intruder outside. That’s where Griffin says his fear spiked again, because he believed the intruder was reaching toward his waist.
Klopp reports Griffin assumed the man had a gun, and Griffin fired three shots just feet from his front door. The man was killed.
“It was me or him,” Griffin told Klopp. He also stressed that he had never shot anyone before and had never been to jail, saying he had never experienced anything like this.
That sentence – “It was me or him” – is the kind of thing people say when they felt trapped, when their mind narrowed down to two outcomes and nothing else. But it’s also the kind of statement that gets questioned later, because investigators and courts look hard at what the threat was doing in that exact moment.
There’s a big difference between defending yourself from someone actively attacking you and shooting someone who is leaving, and Klopp’s report makes clear that this “outside the front door” portion is likely the hinge point in the entire case.
What Police Records Say And What Isn’t Clear
Harrison Klopp reports that Griffin called police immediately after the shooting, which Griffin appears to view as proof that he wasn’t trying to hide what happened. Still, Klopp says Griffin is now charged with voluntary manslaughter.
Klopp also reports WREG has not seen police documentation showing the intruder was carrying a weapon at the time. That’s a key detail, because a claimed fear of a gun is harder to prove if no weapon is recovered or documented.
According to the police records Klopp cites, Griffin told police on the scene that “he fired three shots at the man as he was running away.” That phrasing matters, because it directly shapes how a prosecutor or judge might view the threat level at the moment the trigger was pulled.
Griffin’s account to Klopp emphasizes what he thought he saw—someone reaching to the waist, a movement that, to him, signaled a weapon. But the record Klopp references highlights “running away,” which suggests movement in the opposite direction from an immediate attack.
This is where the modern self-defense debate often becomes brutally real. People talk about “what you’re allowed to do,” but in the moment, the human brain doesn’t operate like a calm courtroom argument, especially at 2:30 a.m. when someone has already breached your home.
At the same time, it’s easy to understand why the legal system gets strict about these cases. If fear alone becomes the standard – without verification, without boundaries – then almost any shooting could be defended after the fact with a sentence like, “I thought he had a gun.”
That doesn’t mean Griffin is lying. It means the system is built to ask: what evidence supports that fear, and did the threat still exist when the shots were fired?
A Family Says He’s Not A Criminal
Harrison Klopp reports that Griffin told him he wishes the outcome had been different. “I think about it, I wish he didn’t die, I wish he was still here, and then I wouldn’t be in this situation,” Griffin said.
That’s a complicated emotion, and Klopp’s report captures it clearly: Griffin can believe he had to shoot and still feel sick about the death that followed. Those two things can exist at the same time, even if people online insist everything must be clean and simple.
Klopp also reports that Griffin has been suspended from his job at FedEx pending an investigation tied to the voluntary manslaughter charge. That detail is easy to miss, but it shows how fast consequences spread beyond the courtroom.
The story also includes Griffin’s mother, Yolanda Griffin, who spoke to Klopp and painted a picture of her son as someone with no history of trouble. “He never been arrested before, he’s never been to jail, never been in trouble with the law,” she said.
Yolanda Griffin also told Klopp her son doesn’t do drugs, doesn’t drink alcohol, and doesn’t spend time in clubs. “He’s a really good young man for this to happen to him,” she said.
Klopp reports she hopes her son will be found innocent, and she points out he is a single father. That’s not a legal argument by itself, but it explains why the family seems desperate for the public to see him as more than a mugshot and a charge.
This is one of the parts that’s hard not to react to, because families always describe loved ones in the best light. But Klopp’s report doesn’t frame it like a cheap excuse – more like a mother trying to explain how a quiet life can collide with one violent night and never recover.
The Case Now Moves Into The Legal Grind
Harrison Klopp reports Griffin is expected back in court on Monday for a bail review hearing. For Griffin, that’s the next major step, because bail decisions shape everything – whether a person fights their case from home or from a jail cell.
Klopp also reports Griffin is trying to raise money for legal fees. That detail says something about how expensive it is to defend yourself even when you believe you did the right thing, and how quickly ordinary people can get buried by the cost of lawyers, court time, and lost work.
My own reaction to Klopp’s reporting is that this case sits right on the edge of what many people assume is straightforward: “If someone breaks into your home, you can defend yourself.” That belief is common, and it’s emotionally satisfying, but real cases are rarely that clean once you get into the sequence of events.
The moment the intruder stepped back outside, the story appears to shift from “home invasion defense” to “what happened during the follow-up,” and Klopp’s reporting suggests that’s exactly where prosecutors are focusing.
If the police record truly reflects that the man was “running away,” that phrase alone may become the centerpiece of arguments on both sides.
Still, it’s hard to ignore what Griffin is describing: a late-night break-in, a shattered window, and an encounter no normal person expects to survive calmly.
If you wake up to that, your nervous system isn’t going to behave like a well-trained legal analyst, and that gap between human panic and legal standards is where tragedies multiply.
Harrison Klopp’s WREG report shows this isn’t just a crime story or a self-defense story. It’s a story about how one frightening, chaotic night can turn into years of consequences, with the same set of facts being read two different ways – one as survival, the other as a crime.
Mark grew up in the heart of Texas, where tornadoes and extreme weather were a part of life. His early experiences sparked a fascination with emergency preparedness and homesteading. A father of three, Mark is dedicated to teaching families how to be self-sufficient, with a focus on food storage, DIY projects, and energy independence. His writing empowers everyday people to take small steps toward greater self-reliance without feeling overwhelmed.
