Woman who fatally shot Pastor Ricky Floyd outside bar reportedly on suicide watch

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Friday, March 14, 2025

Samantha Marion, the lady who has been charged with the deadly capturing of outstanding Memphis, Tennessee, Pastor Ricky Floyd on Wednesday morning, is now reportedly on suicide watch in jail as her mom insists she was defending herself after she was attacked.

“Anyone in any scenario, if you turn into afraid, you turn into afraid,” Marion’s mom, who was not recognized by title, advised WREG on the house she shares together with her daughter. “And you understand concern will drive you to that, and she or he needed to be awfully scared.”

Police say Marion, 42, known as police to Momma’s Bar and Kitchen, positioned at 855 Kentucky Highway in Memphis, at about 1:17 a.m. Wednesday and confessed to capturing Floyd, who served because the senior lead pastor of Pursuit of God Church in Frayser.

Earlier than the capturing, Floyd, 58, and Marion, who had been with two others on the time, had an argument inside Momma’s Bar and Kitchen, in response to police data cited by Fox13. Witnesses allege the argument led the 2 exterior the enterprise, the place the pastor grew to become “irate and aggressive.”

Video surveillance footage reportedly reveals Floyd throwing Marion’s telephone and a beer can earlier than hopping into his car and driving away. Marion then allegedly walked into the roadway and appeared to report the pastor’s car together with her telephone. Floyd is then proven returning to the scene and confronting Marion earlier than a witness separates them. As Floyd backed away, police stated Marion walked towards the pastor, who was then seen falling to the bottom and by no means getting up once more.

Marion was charged with voluntary manslaughter and at present stays in jail on a $100,000 bond after pleading not responsible at her first court docket look on Thursday morning, the Memphis Business Enchantment reviews.

“This isn’t my daughter’s character, and she or he was defending herself,” Marion’s mom advised WREG. “Perhaps in her thoughts she was defending the 2 pals she was with.”

It was unclear Friday what the character of the connection between Floyd and Marion was. When requested why the married pastor was at a bar with Marion after 1 a.m., Floyd’s media liaison, Telisa Franklin, advised The Christian Put up that she was unable to touch upon the connection and most popular to deal with his achievements as a revered chief of the Memphis neighborhood.

“We’d love for folks to recollect him as a real servant. He was a transformative chief. He remodeled the Frayser neighborhood,” Franklin advised CP, noting that his church and household had been nonetheless processing his demise.

Floyd leaves behind his spouse, Sheila, three grownup youngsters, one daughter-in-law and two granddaughters, in response to the church’s web site. The pastor can also be listed as the motive force behind a number of neighborhood initiatives.

He served because the president of Eden Estates Residences, a 52-unit advanced within the Frayser neighborhood, and president of The Husband Institute, Inc., a boys-to-men mentoring program. He was the founding father of the College of Marriage Enhancement.

“You already know, this (Frayser) is a really poverty-stricken neighborhood. He created what we name Black Road Wall Road, with the strip mall,” Franklin advised CP. “He made positive he owns the residence advanced the place we’re capable of home folks with reasonably priced housing. … He was actually a pacesetter that cared about God, his household, and the folks. … He would at all times exit of his method to see and to serve another person.”

Marion’s mom stated she is sorry the pastor died, however she can also be heartbroken about what is going on together with her daughter.

“I’m sorry that there was a demise,” she advised WREG. “I’m sorry for the household.”