MEMPHIS, TN (abc24.com) - Private security guards are protecting local apartment complexes and putting their lives on the line. On Sunday, October 23, 2011, a security guard was shot and killed in Whitehaven, the latest in a series of dangers encounters for these guards.
On Monday, Memphis Police said they were interviewing a person of interest in the shooting at the Bent Tree Apartment that claimed the life of a 41-year-old security guard, Reginald Thompson.
Derrick Hoffman knows first hand about the dangers. He runs Memphis Protection Agency, which patrols complexes similar to the Bent Tree.
"In this line of work," says Hoffman, "we are the front face of all these apartment complexes. They are at full occupancy. We get shot at on a regular basis. This is an extended amount of danger. It is very extensive. We don't know what we are walking into every day."
Hoffman and many of his fellow guards wear bullet-proof vests, carry loaded guns and handcuffs.
"It is getting worse," says Don Lewis at Pro-Tech Security, Inc. "It is getting worse everyday. We put out about 200 people every day, and they've noticed a change in the violence."
