Less than two weeks after a lone gunman walked into a Lafayette, Louisiana screening of Judd Apaptow’s Tranwreck and opened fire, killing two innocent patrons before taking his own life, police in Antioch, Tennessee are responding to a call of shots being fired in a neighborhood multiplex.
According to the Tennessean, authorities this afternoon were called to the Carmike Hickory 8 in Antioch when reports of shots being fired hit the wire. Details continue to emerge from the scene, but at the moment, the Metro Nashville Police Department is stating on Twitter that the suspect in the case is dead:
The Tennessean has the latest details, saying that the suspect entered an auditorium screening George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road. They say that the man was wielding a hatchet and at least two backpacks, which are being investigated by police. The reports say that the man may have injured one person with the hatchet.
According to the latest reports, metro police arrived on the scene and entered the theater through the projection room. Police spokesman Don Aaron said that the gunman in the theater opened fire on a South Precinct officer, and that the officer who was fired upon returned fire. Aaron confirmed to the Tennessean:
There was gunfire and the gunman is deceased just inside the movie theater. So we believe the imminent threat has been ended."
Minutes after the call came in, businesses around the Carmike Hickory 8 were put into lockdown, including the Ford Ice Center. Jeremy Cardoza, an employee on the premises at the time said that at least 25 people were in the business when this happened, and has told the Tennessean that most of them were children.
We're waiting on instructions from police, we have not been contacted yet. We had a parent come in and they kind of just told us that there were a bunch of cops posted outside."
As mentioned, this is the second shooting in a movie theater in as many weeks. Amy Schumer, the star of Trainwreck, recently backed support for stronger gun control legislation, saying that she was personally affected by the events that took place on Lafayette during a screening of her movie. And Twitter users using the hashtag #NashvilleShooting spoke out against the sanctity of a movie theater, and how incidents like this no longer make some people feel safe.
And this user expressed a sentiment I believe many are feeling in the wake of this latest incident:
Our thoughts and prayers go out to all in Tennessee and around the country who are affected by this latest tragedy.
