A man was killed and five other people wounded in a shooting inside a Nashville, Tennessee, restaurant during Easter brunch in the afternoon, police said.
In addition, a pregnant woman was taken to the hospital after having a panic attack, reports CBS Nashville affiliate WTVF-TV, citing police.
The shooting at around 3 o’clock in the city’s Salemtown neighborhood began within minutes of the male suspect’s arrival at the restaurant, called Roasted, with a woman, police said.
The suspect and the man who died got into an argument that “significantly escalated within moments,” Metropolitan Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron said during a news conference at the scene.
“It’s Easter Sunday, everybody’s dressed up, last thing you’d expect,” Carly Payne, who lives nearby and saw the aftermath, told WTVF. “My heart was out of my chest, I knew I needed to get inside, and then obviously I knew first thing was to call 911.”
Police later identified the deceased man as 33-year-old Allen Beachem. The other victims weren’t critically wounded, police said.
WTVF-TV via AP
Police identified a 46-year-old suspect and said a Mercedes GLS 450 he used to flee the scene with images from security video provided by the restaurant. As a search continued Sunday for the the suspect, police posted photos of the shooting scene on social media, including an image of a man pointing a handgun.
“The gunman was the only one who brandished a pistol. This was not a shootout, if you will; this was one person who decided to pull a gun based on an altercation occurring with another man and then he fired multiple shots,” Aaron said.
There was panic inside the restaurant as customers tried to escape, Police Commander Anthony McClain said.
“Some people did try to resist the gunman,” McClain said. “It was just mass chaos.”
Investigators were at local hospitals Sunday interviewing victims to determine exactly what happened, Aaron said.
“It may have been something as simple as one person invading another person’s space,” he said.