According to Nashville police, a man was murdered and nine other people were injured, including three children, when two groups opened fire on each other as crowds from a Tennessee State University homecoming parade thinned out Saturday.
A 24-year-old man was slain in bullets fired off-campus on Jefferson Street around 5:10 p.m., after the march had ended but parking lots were still congested, according to police.
“We can tell from the shell casings that there were gunshots on one side and then on the other side of the street,” police spokesman Don Aaron told reporters.
According to police, the incident took place after a substantial portion of the crowd had left to see the Tennessee State Tigers-Eastern Illinois Panthers game in Nashville.
Police did not identify the victims or confirm whether they were students. Their injuries range from grazed by bullets to critical.
Aaron stated that the three children that were shot, one 12-year-old and two 14-year-olds, all had non-critical injuries.
Police are looking into how many shooters there were, and Aaron believes at least one person inside the hospital fired shots. Video from an airborne police camera could provide light on what occurred.
Detectives were also interviewing the people who had been shot. Aaron reported that cops were familiar with some of the hospitalized individuals from previous interactions. “We are confident that things are beginning to come together,” I heard him say.
Handguns are suspected to have been used, and police located one on the street, he said.
The march took place on Saturday morning, and the crowd was beginning to thin out when the shooting happened. Aaron claimed that Jefferson Street had reopened approximately 20 minutes earlier.
“Just a handful of people, a very small number of people, besmirched the celebration,” he stated to me.”
He stated that the occurrence was particularly surprising given the high number of police officers and other public safety workers present at the event. “There were police officers everywhere,” he told me.
According to Nashville Fire Department spokesperson Kendra Loney, several of the firefighters who assisted were just having fun.
“Our personnel recounted to me some moments where they ripped off their belts and did things like use those as tourniquets,” Loney told me.
“We’re upset. We’re angry,” she stated.
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell condemned the violence. He reported that hundreds of people marched along Jefferson Street during the homecoming ceremony.
“What was a joyous atmosphere is tonight very different because of a senseless act of violence carried out by people who didn’t care who else might be caught in the crossfire,” according to what he wrote at X.
Tennessee State University officials said that a separate incident occurred at Nissan Stadium, where the school’s homecoming football game was being held.
When “an argument that escalated into a fight” in the parking lot caused fear, a mob trampled three people and transported them to hospitals.
Jashawna Rucker, a recent high school graduate, was walking back home from the homecoming parade when the shooting erupted. She initially mistaken the noises for fireworks, but she soon realized they were from a shooting.
“And everybody was running, and I started running, almost fell,” she told Nashville-based NBC affiliate WSMV and others. “I just thank God it wasn’t me.”
She conveyed her sympathy to everyone who was shot or otherwise affected, including the one who died.
“It’s sad because nowadays we can’t do anything,” she told reporters on the scene. “We can’t do nothing. We can’t have fun, can’t go outside, and there are youngsters around. It’s rather depressing.”
Article Source: 10 Shot, One Fatally, After Tennessee State University Homecoming Parade
