A man was killed and five other people injured in a shooting at a Nashville, Tennessee, restaurant during Easter brunch in the afternoon, police said.
Additionally, a pregnant woman was taken to the hospital after having a panic attack, CBS Nashville affiliate WTVF-TV reported, citing police.
The shooting began around 3 p.m. in the Salemtown neighborhood, minutes after the suspect arrived at the Roasted restaurant with a woman, police said.
The suspect and the deceased man got into an argument that “escalated significantly in a matter of moments,” Nashville Metropolitan Police spokesman Don Aaron said during a news conference at the scene.
“It’s Easter Sunday, everyone’s dressed up, it’s the last thing you would expect,” Carly Payne, who lives nearby and saw the aftermath, told WTVF. “My heart was out of my chest, I knew I had to go in, and obviously I knew the first thing to do was call 911.”
Police later identified the deceased man as 33-year-old Allen Beachem. The other victims were not seriously injured, police said.
WTVF-TV via AP
Police identified a 46-year-old suspect and said he used a Mercedes GLS 450 to flee the scene with footage from security video provided by the restaurant. As the search continued Sunday for the suspect, police posted photos from the shooting scene on social media, including an image of a man pointing a handgun.
“The shooter was the only one brandishing a gun. It wasn’t a shooting, if you will; it was a person who decided to pull out a gun following an altercation with another man, and then he fired several gunshots,” Aaron said. .
There was panic inside the restaurant as customers tried to escape, police Commander Anthony McClain said.
“Some people tried to resist the shooter,” McClain said. “It was just mass chaos.”
Investigators went to local hospitals Sunday to interview victims to determine exactly what happened, Aaron said.
“It may have been something as simple as a person invading another person’s space,” he said.
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