2 injured in drive-by shooting outside Nashville church during funeral

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Monday, November 28, 2022

Family members and friends of a 19-year-old woman shot dead in Nashville, Tennessee, earlier this month were forced to run for their lives after a church where the woman’s funeral was being held was sprayed with bullets in a drive-by attack on Saturday.

Don Aaron, a spokesman for the Metro Nashville Police Department, told The Associated Press that the shooting, which left two people with injuries that were not life-threatening, happened outside the New Season Church shortly after the funeral for Terriana Johnson who was shot dead on Nov. 14 at Watkins Park.

Aaron said at a press conference that the drive-by shooting was carried out by individuals in a black Honda Civic, with a temporary tag at around 1:40 p.m. The funeral for Johnson had also just ended and the hearse was waiting to receive her body.

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“I can’t tell you if it was one or more persons who opened fire, but this was just a brazen shooting. These persons had no regard for human life at all. The funeral service was over, the hearse was parked in front, the rear door to the hearse was open and people were coming out of the church when this car comes by, and shots are fired,” Aaron said, according to NBC News affiliate WSMV. 

Officials said more than 25 bullets were fired at the church where an 18-year-old woman was shot in the leg and a 25-year-old man was shot in the pelvis. Some armed funeral attendees fired back, Aaron said, but none of them are members of the church.

Ryan Cook, who lives near the church with his mother, told WSMV that he was in his bedroom playing video games when the shooting started.

“I was in my bedroom playing my PlayStation with my cousin and my friends when I heard gunshots coming from the church,” he said. “I walked up to my window, I opened it and look outside, and I hear more gunshots and I see people running away from the church.”

Cook said he quickly called his mother who called the police.

“She walked outside and looked around at what was happening and got on the phone with the police telling them what was going on,” Cook said. “I was just in shock, thinking this is America, this is really happening.”

He further described how distraught the shooting left some people at the funeral.

“I just saw these people crying and saying shots fired, they tried to hurt my mom,” he said. “I just tried to put myself in their place like what if that were to happen to me.”

Local police have not yet arrested anyone for Johnson’s murder but they have identified 17-year-old Alarenta Waters as the prime suspect.

Police say Waters fired on a car in which Johnson was riding moments after she and his sister were engaged in a fight.

While the situation isn’t necessarily due to a conflict between two families, Aaron said the shooting “appears to be some type of beef between two groups of people.”