Terrible.
A late-night shootout in downtown Nashville last night left an innocent bystander injured and police looking for the suspect.
It all went down in front of the La Danse Nightclub and Red Phone Booth speakeasy, about 3 blocks from the bars and honky tonks filled with visitors on Broadway.
According to the Metro Nashville Police Department, a man was kicked out of the nightclub after allegedly punching a woman. An altercation broke out between the man’s group and the club’s security, and the group eventually left the club and crossed the street.
But once they got outside, the group began firing at the nightclub, where security began returning fire in self-defense.
One woman, who was apparently just an innocent bystander, was injured during the shootout. According to an interview with WKRN, food vendor Jay Yosef says the woman was ordering a hot dog at his cart when the gunfire erupted:
“One of my customers, she asked for hot dog. I was in process to charge her card when we just heard heavy shooting with the automatic weapons, something, maybe over 150 bullets. We got scared, but we just saw my customer. She was bleeding. She got shot on her leg, right leg. We went on the ground and we tried to hide from the shooting, and after that, we tried to stop the bleeding from her leg and then police arrived and everything got clear.”
Police said that at least 70 shots were fired, and it appeared that some of those shots came from an automatic rifle. Luckily, the woman who was injured is expected to recover.
Meanwhile, the Nashville police are currently reviewing surveillance footage to attempt to track down the shooters, and say they have “strong leads.” But Yosef says that he plans to move his food stand to a different location:
“90 percent of my customers come out of this bar, but I just don’t want to be here anymore. It’s just, it’s too much. You don’t want to just lose your life to make money, to survive or to feed your kids.”
La Danse Nightclub, which advertises “the only hookah in downtown” Nashville, opened just a few months ago at the intersection of Commerce Street and Rosa Parks Boulevard.
Situations like this are an unfortunate reality when you mix guns and alcohol, but something like this happening so close to the tourist bars in downtown Nashville is no doubt going to get the attention of city leaders with so many visitors to the nearby area. Red Phone Booth has become an especially popular bar with visitors to the city, and nearby hotels and businesses frequented by tourists also suffered damage during the shootout.
Luckily it wasn’t more serious than it was, especially with the number of shots that were fired. And thankfully, this type of event is still pretty uncommon in downtown Nashville despite the large crowds. MNPD has made an effort to ramp up their presence on Broadway recently, even closing off the street on busy nights, and Garth Brooks recently paid for a new downtown police substation located next to his downtown bar, Friends in Low Places.
Hopefully those police are able to track down the shooters soon.
