Two people were injured in a shooting inside a library in Nashville.
The shooting broke out at the Bordeaux Branch of the Nashville Public Library on Thursday afternoon.
Five teenagers went into the library on Clarksville Pike and three of them entered the men’s restroom while the two others apparently acted as lookouts, said Metro police, according to WKRN.
The three teens inside the restroom reportedly got into an argument, with at least two of them apparently armed.
Shots were fired inside the washroom and two of the three teens were wounded, authorities said.
A 16-year-old boy was shot in the foot and fled the library. First responders found him and transported him to Skyline Medical Center.
The other teen, aged 14, was shot in the groin and remained in the restroom until cops got to the scene. Police recovered a weapon from him.
Both victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
All five teenagers were taken into custody.
Investigators said the shooting did not seem random.
‘This should not be happening with our teens,’ Metro police spokesman Don Aaron told The Tennessean.
‘Very troubling when you have teens armed with guns entering a restroom.’
The shots were fired just after 3pm. Brent Dickerson, other library patrons and staff moved to an office after hearing the gunshots.
‘That shook me up so bad,’ Dickerson told the newspaper. ‘I just turned around, came over here. I had to walk off and get my head together. Because you never know.’
He said it was ‘unbelievable’ that the shooting unfolded where it did.
‘At the public library? You’d never think that,’ said Dickerson. ‘But we’re living in a different time now. I don’t know.’
The branch closed after the shooting and said it would not open on Friday either.
Howard Jones, who lives close to the branch, told The Tennessean that ‘it’s our responsibility to stop gun violence and institute common sense gun laws’ and that ‘no 18-year-old should have a gun in their hand’.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
