NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — One person is dead and nine others are injured near the Tennessee State University campus while the school celebrated its homecoming this weekend.
Five people were sent to hospitals. Five others were taken to the hospital via private vehicle. Metro Nashville Police Department officials said one suspect involved in the gunfire was taken to the hospital. Three juveniles are victims, one as young as 12. None of the juvenile victims are in critical condition.
The shooting was reported along Jefferson Street, near 27th Avenue at about 5 p.m. Saturday.
"It's not a good thing when a handful of people can cause disruption for the entire community," MNPD spokesperson Don Aaron said. "This type of gun violence has got to stop. We didn't expect this to happen here with all the law enforcement and safety people here. There were police officers and firefighters everywhere."
Aaron said it appeared two groups were targeting each other when the gunshots hit other bystanders.
He said they are processing the scene, and he doesn't know how many shots were fired. He said they believed handguns were used. He said this was a homicide investigation with the homicide team leading the investigation. Twenty minutes before the shooting happened, Jefferson Street had reopened to traffic from the homecoming festivities.
Wounds on the victims vary from grazes to critical injuries.
The Nashville Fire Department was in the area for outreach as part of the homecoming festivities. NFD spokesperson Kendra Loney said her department was able to react quickly to those who were gunshot victims. One NFD member was transferred for a non-gunshot related issue.
"As the gunfire erupted, our crews were right here where that occurred," Loney said. "They recounted that it sounded like fireworks that were happening. They reacted and they were shocked in the moment. They ripped off their belts and made tourniquets. The innocence in this event was taken away. We don't know the final number of victims. We are grateful first responders were on the scene and already here. We are very thankful for that. It could have been worse."
Aaron said historically police have a presence on Jefferson Street throughout the day because of homecoming festivities. Police are looking at surveillance video to understand better what happened.
MNPD's Anthony McClain said he graduated from TSU and had been celebrating the school's homecoming near the Tennessee Titans stadium, where the Tigers were hosting the game. A gunshot may have been heard outside Nissan Stadium, but there are not reported gunshot victims.
Jashawna Rucker — who was a bystander who just graduated from high school — said the situation was chaos of the shots being fired. She said thankfully no one she came with was hurt.
She saw people running and crying. Those in the crowd were also trying to get to others' houses for safety.
"I am thankful I didn't lose my life or get shot," Rucker said. "Nowadays, we can't do nothing. There were kids around. It's very sad this kind of incident has happened. Last year, it was so smooth and good. You never would have thought it would happen this year. It just suddenly happened."
MNPD officials have not yet confirmed the ages of the victims or whether they were students.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email us at newsroom@newschannel5.com.
For people of my generation, in our younger days we spent part of our weekends watching music shows like American Bandstand and Soul Train. That was before the age of music videos. Several years before Soul Train was syndicated out of Chicago, another syndicated R&B show was taped in Nashville at NewsChannel 5. Night Train aired in the 60s and included what may have been the first TV appearance for legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Forrest Sanders has another great look back at station history.
-Lelan Statom
