10 people shot, one fatally, on Jefferson Street in Nashville
Ten people were shot, one fatally, in an exchange of gunfire at the intersection of Jefferson Street and 27th Avenue N. a little after 5 p.m. Saturday, according to Metro Nashville Police.
Evidence showed two groups fired shots from opposite sides of the street, MNPD spokesperson Don Aaron said. A 24-year-old man died, and victims’ injuries ranged from critical to minor graze wounds. A 12-year-old girl and two 14-year-old girls were in non-critical condition at Vanderbilt Children’s University Pediatrics. The oldest victim was a 55-year-old woman who was in critical condition and undergoing surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The other victims were expected to survive.
Five of the victims were taken to the hospital by fire department personnel, while the other five were dropped off in private vehicles.
Police are confident one of the injured people fired shots, Aaron said. The homicide unit was leading the investigation, which would continue throughout the night. Detectives were interviewing the victims at hospitals.
“We are confident that things are beginning to come together,” Aaron said of the investigation. “This is a very difficult scenario for our city in that just a handful of people, a very small number of people, besmirched the celebration of activities for North Nashville and Tennessee State University.”
It is homecoming week for TSU, and Jefferson Street near campus was busier than usual on Saturday. A parade took place on the street that morning, and the football game kicked off at 5 p.m. several miles away at Nissan Stadium.
Jefferson Street was closed to vehicles for much of the day but had opened up to traffic about 20 minutes before the shooting took place.
“This type of gun violence has just got to stop,” Aaron said. “We would never have expected this to have taken place. There were police officers everywhere as well as firefighters.”
Nashville Fire Department spokesperson Kendra Loney said NFD employees were on Jefferson Street participating in the community event when the gunfire started. They sprang into action to help, even using belts for tourniquets because they did not have their equipment with them, Loney said.
“We are upset. We are angry about that disruption,” she said. “The innocence in this event was taken away and lives were endangered.”
Rauf Muhammad, 58, was cooking and selling food from a tent on the street when he heard the shots break out less than 50 yards down Jefferson Street. He dropped to the ground.
“Everybody having fun, music playing or whatnot. Then all of a sudden, you just hear like you off in a war somewhere,” Muhammad said.
He said that police were at the scene within five minutes.
Jashawna Ruckur, a recent high school graduate, was also on the street when the shooting occurred.
“I was so close to it. I thought it was just fireworks,” Ruckur said. “And everybody was just running. And I started running — I almost fell.”
Mayor Freddie O’Connell posted on X Saturday evening, recalling how he participated with hundreds of others in the parade that morning.
“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,” he wrote.
Cmdr. Anthony McClain was off duty Saturday, enjoying homecoming festivities with his family near TSU, his alma mater. At 7:20 p.m., he was dressed in his police uniform to address the media about the shooting that broke out about two hours before.“It’s unfortunate that a few folks pretty much ruined it for everybody,” McClain said. “We have to come to a point where we stop this violence.”
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