A Memphis woman is speaking out after witnessing her husband’s fatal shooting, an encounter she says began as a desperate attempt to avoid a traffic stop and ended in irreversible tragedy.
Sheila Booker, now a widow and mother of five young children, says her life changed in an instant on Jan. 9, when she and her husband, Rodriguez Poplar, pulled into a stranger’s driveway in a residential neighborhood.
Booker said the decision was made after Poplar noticed police blue lights ahead and feared a traffic stop because their vehicle had expired tags and a broken headlight.
According to Booker, moments after parking in the driveway, the homeowner emerged from his house armed and aggressively ordered them to leave the property.
“So, he pulled the gun in my face,” Booker recalled in an interview with Memphis television station WHBQ. “That’s when my husband got out—trying to protect me—and that’s when he shot my husband right in front of me.”
Booker said police officers, already nearby, arrived at the scene within a minute.
“The police came so fast,” she said. “If it weren’t for them, I think I’d be dead. They saved my life.”
Homeowner Charged With Second-Degree Murder
Authorities identified the shooter as Tommy Applewhite, who was taken into custody and later charged with second-degree murder and additional offenses. Investigators say Applewhite claimed he fired his weapon because he believed Poplar was “bullying” him.
Booker rejects that assertion.
“How can you call someone a bully because we pulled in a yard?” she asked.
Court records show Applewhite has a criminal history dating back more than two decades, including gun- and drug-related offenses.
In 2007, he pleaded guilty to attempted murder after shooting a man twice in the face following a dispute at an apartment complex. He served three years in prison.
At the time of Poplar’s death, Applewhite was reportedly on active probation after pleading guilty to a gun charge in 2022.
A Family Left Behind
Poplar’s killing has left Booker to care for their five children, all between the ages of 3 and 10, on her own. Struggling with grief and sudden financial strain, Booker has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover burial expenses.
She says she is determined to attend every court hearing in the case.
“I’m going to keep showing up,” Booker said, adding that justice for her husband—and accountability for his death—now define her path forward.
The case has reignited local and national conversations about gun violence, self-defense claims, and the risks faced by civilians during everyday encounters that spiral into deadly confrontations.
