Tennessee couple arrested after investigators find drugs, gun in raid on home day care

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A couple is facing a list of charges after investigators found drugs, cash, and a gun at their house, which was also operating as a home day care, according to court records.

Investigators said they caught Tony Butler, 36, selling drugs from his car Thursday, Aug. 1 outside the McDonalds on Getwell Road. Detectives had been watching him as part of a drug investigation.

Court records showed detectives pulled up behind Butler and turned on their lights and sirens after he sold drugs to an undercover officer, but Butler tried to speed off and rammed a patrol car. Nobody was injured.

In Butler’s car, investigators said they found marijuana, cocaine, crack, fentanyl, heroin, ecstasy, and promethazine cough syrup.

Detectives also raided a house on Valley Glynn Drive, where they say they found more cocaine, digital scales, cash stashed throughout the master bedroom and a .357 revolver in a living room closet.

All these items were found in the same home where investigators say Butler’s girlfriend, Shemeka Rodgers, 34, was running a home day care.

“It’s shocking and it’s scary," one woman in the neighborhood, who didn't want to be identified, said.

She said she constantly sees young children coming and going from the house.

“Just traffic in and out in the mornings and the afternoons, dropping children off and picking them up," she said. “I would be terrified to think that my children had been there.”

WREG checked records from the Department of Human Resources, but out of the 10 licensed home day care providers in that ZIP code, Rodgers wasn’t listed.

WREG reached out to DHS to see if Rodgers has a license to operate a home day care in Tennessee, but didn't immediately receive a response.

She and Butler were scheduled to be in court on Monday, Aug. 5.