A man was fatally shot and nine other people were wounded, including three children, after two groups fired at each other as crowds from a Tennessee State University homecoming parade were thinning out Saturday, Nashville police said.
Vonquae Johnson, 24, died in the gunfire that erupted off campus on Jefferson Street around 5:10 p.m., after the parade was over but as parking lots were still full of people, police said.
Two people, Marquez Davis and DeAnthony Brown, both 24, were arrested Monday, with police calling them suspected shooters. They are charged with criminal homicide.
It was not immediately clear if Davis or Brown had attorneys who could speak on their behalf. A lawyer who according to court records may have represented Davis in a case filed in 2023 did not return a request for comment Monday night.
Much of the crowd had left to go to the Tennessee State Tigers-Eastern Illinois Panthers game in Nashville when the shooting erupted, police said.
“We can tell from the shell casings that there were gunshots from one side of the street, and then on the other side of the street,” police spokesman Don Aaron told reporters.
One of the three children who was shot is 12 years old and two are 14 years old, according to police. None of the nine people who were injured are in critical condition, police said, and they were recovering Monday.
Investigators believe that five people with gang affiliations opened fire, police said in an update Monday. Johnson, the man who died, was one of those five, according to the police department.
Handguns are believed to have been used, and police found one gun in the street, Aaron said.
The parade took place Saturday morning and the crowd was beginning to thin out when the shooting occurred. Jefferson Street had reopened about 20 minutes prior, Aaron said.
“Just a handful of people, a very small number of people, besmirched the celebration,” he said.
He said the shooting was especially unexpected because of the number of police officers and other public safety officials who were working the event. “There were police officers everywhere,” he said.
Some of the firefighters who rendered aid were there just to enjoy themselves, Nashville Fire Department spokesperson Kendra Loney said.
“Our personnel recounted to me some moments where they ripped off their belts and did things like use those as tourniquets,” Loney said.
“We are upset. We are angry,” she said.
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell condemned the violence. He said hundreds of people marched down Jefferson during the homecoming event.
“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 on X.
Tennessee State University officials said a separate incident occurred at Nissan Stadium, where the school’s homecoming football game was underway.
Three people were taken to hospitals after being trampled by a crowd when “an argument that escalated into a fight” in the parking lot caused panic.
Jashawna Rucker, who just graduated from high school, was at the homecoming parade event and was walking back to her family when gunfire erupted. At first she thought the noises were fireworks, but soon realized it was a shooting.
“And everybody was running, and I started running, almost fell,” she told NBC affiliate WSMV of Nashville and others. “I just thank God it wasn’t me.”
She said she was sorry for everyone who was shot or otherwise affected, and for the person who died.
“It’s sad, because nowadays we can’t do nothing,” she told reporters at the scene. “We can’t do nothing. We can’t have fun, we can’t go outside, have fun, nothing — and there’s kids around. It’s very sad.”
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