Police Warn Nashville Residents to be on Guard After Spate of Shootings

Zachary Stieber
By Zachary Stieber
August 19, 2018US News
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The Nashville Police Department has warned residents of the Tennessee city to be on their guard after a string of shootings that have left three dead.

Police officers told Nashville residents to travel in groups if possible and to be extra alert.

Officers said they’re searching for two suspected killers.

The latest shootings, on Friday, Aug. 17, left two people dead. Jaime Sarrantonio, 30, and Bradley Teal, 33, were shot around 3:30 a.m. outside The Cobra bar on Gallatin Avenue.

Kendall Rice, 31, was shot dead while walking on Alta Loma Road around 5 a.m. on Tuesday.

Spate of Shootings, Possible Connections

“These are two just senseless, cold-blooded homicides,” Don Aaron, public affairs manager of the Metropolitan Police Department of Nashville & Davidson County, told CBS.

Officers said that information is being analyzed from The Cobra shooting and the shooting that left Rice dead.

“Active leads are being pursued in both of the homicide cases,” Aaron said on Saturday, reported The Tennessean. Officials are searching for connections between the homicides, while also looking at other recent shootings.

On Aug. 8, a 39-year-old woman was shot while walking her dog and was left alive but paralyzed, while an attempted robbery and another shooting were recorded on the same day Rice was killed and two other shootings took place the previous day, meaning five shootings took place within just 12 hours, reported WKRN.

Additionally, Nashville resident Ryan Noble, 30, said he was robbed by two men who match the description of the suspects in The Cobra shooting on Aug. 15.

Some residents are taking precautions after the shootings, while others have already been doing things differently.

NTD Photo
A grainy surveillance image shows a vehicle and a shooting suspect in the parking lot of The Cobra in the early hours of Friday, Aug. 17, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. (Nashville Police Department)

“Now that the city is growing and more people are around, I’ve noticed more violence,” Kimala Petty, a stylist at Beene’s Barbershop, told News 5. “We do lock the doors after dark and don’t let people in we really don’t know.”

A surveillance image taken from a camera at The Cobra shows a man standing outside a dark sedan, described as a small, dark Chevrolet that could be a Cruze of a Cobalt.

While Sarrantonio and Teal were shot dead, two people with them were left alive. All four were robbed, and the suspects dumped the belongings in an alley nearby.

Only a vague description of the suspects has been circulated by the police, along with the grainy surveillance image. They’re described as two black men, with at least one with dreadlocks.

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