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Mom of 4 threatened over parking spot at Sam’s Club: “That man was going to shoot and I knew it”

Posted at 4:07 PM, Jul 29, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-29 16:07:52-04

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Back-to-school shopping takes a lot these days, including buying uniforms, shoes, backpacks and supplies. So single mom of four Nakisha Wardlow always compares deals at multiple stores, including Sam’s Club.

"We just went there to check the prices of the kids uniforms. I got those. I see I beat them somewhere else," she told WREG.

Wardlow went back out to her car and took her time packing up. She said she explained what she was doing to a man in his 60s who was in his vehicle waiting for a spot.

"I let the driver know I was fixing my daughter’s clothes with the door open. He said, ‘You can't tell me where to park!’ I said, 'I am not telling you where to park. I was just letting you know why I was taking so long.' He proceeds to cuss me out,” she said.

She said she got scared and her son, 14, got out of the car to protect her.

"The driver was behind the truck already. [He went] back to the door to get [his] gun. Clearly, there are children in the car. I'm still telling my son to sit down. He got a gun. Sit down," she said.

In that moment, she feared for her kids' lives.

She demonstrated how the man gripped a gun while holding his arm at his side.

"If I got out that car that man was going to shoot and I knew it," she said.

She says he went to get security while she called the police.

She works two jobs; one in retail and one for the postal service. She has to be at the mail sorting complex at 4 a.m., but she hasn't slept since the incident Thursday afternoon.

“I’ve been up 27 hours since yesterday when I got off work crying. I feel helpless because I couldn’t help my child,” she said as tears ran down her face.

She said she's learned to keep to herself.

“Cant even have Southern hospitality because it's being taken the wrong way," she said.

And she’s not taking any chances; she’ll only parking her car in the back of the lot in the future.

Wardlow said she provided tag information to police.

Police said they had not made an arrest as of Friday afternoon.