Vindicator Logo

CHURCH SHOOTING UPDATE: Suspected church shooter identified in Nashville

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

Police have released the identity of a suspect in a Tennessee church shooting.

Metropolitan Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron identified the suspect as 25-year-old Emanuel Kidega Samson of Murfreesboro.

Aaron says Samson has been discharged from Vanderbilt University Hospital and charging warrants are being obtained.

Aaron says the gunman arrived in the parking lot as services were being let out Sunday at the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ. Aaron says a woman who was walking to her vehicle was fatally shot.

Aaron says the gunman then entered the rear of the church and six people were shot. Aaron says a churchgoer who confronted the gunman was pistol-whipped by the suspect, who then shot himself.

Meanwhile, a witness to the shooting is calling an usher who confronted the gunman "a hero."

Minerva Rosa has been a member at the church in the Nashville neighborhood of Antioch for eight years. She was inside when a suspect opened fired today.

Rosa says the suspect said nothing as he shot churchgoers. As the gunman made his way down the aisle, Rosa says the pastor started shouting, "'Run! Run! Gunshots!"

Aaron said the usher was pistol whipped as he confronted the suspect, who then apparently shot himself during the struggle. Aaron says the usher then went to his own car to retrieve his gun, returned and stood over the suspect until police arrived.

Rosa says without the usher, the situation "could be worse."

Aaron didn't immediately identify the usher but calls him "an extraordinarily brave individual.