A 79-year-old Owensboro woman is in critical condition after being shot in Nashville on Friday. According to the Metro Nashville Police Department, the woman and her daughter were shot by the daughter’s ex-boyfriend, who then died by suicide when confronted by a police sergeant minutes later.
The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) released a statement Friday saying the incident occurred at a residence on California Avenue near the intersection of 54th and Tennessee Avenues.
Police said the suspect, 54-year-old Jeffrey Carlson, fatally shot himself under the chin at 5:28 p.m. after West Precinct Sergeant Michael Hunnicutt saw him walking on 54th Avenue and ordered him to show his hands, stop, and put the gun down.
According to MNPD, body camera footage shows that Hunnicutt fired one round from his pistol just after Carlson shot himself, but police say Hunnicutt’s round did not hit Carlson. (MNPD included a link to the body cam footage, but YouTube has taken the video down as of Monday morning.)
Hunnicutt and other arriving officers rendered aid to Carlson, who died from the self-inflicted wound shortly after arrival at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, according to MNPD.
According to the release, a 911 call was received at 5:19 p.m. concerning a shooting at 5705 California Avenue, the residence of Carlson’s ex-girlfriend, a 51-year-old woman. First responding officers found the woman’s mother, who resides in Owensboro, in front of the home critically wounded from multiple gunshot wounds, the release says. The mother is in critical condition at Vanderbilt.
(Editor’s note: Owensboro Times has chosen not to identify the victims by name at this time.)
The release says that moments later, officers found the daughter, also shot, in the rear of 1529 52nd Avenue, where neighbors were rendering aid.
Detectives interviewed the daughter, who said that when she arrived home Friday afternoon, Carlson was inside and immediately shot her. She fled out the rear door of the residence, police said.
Detectives presently believe the mother was shot second, and that she fled out the front door and collapsed. Police said Carlson also fled out the front door, then unsuccessfully attempted to carjack a vehicle in the 5700 block of California Avenue.
Due to Hunnicutt firing his weapon, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is leading the investigation into Carlson’s death. The MNPD’s Violent Crimes & Domestic Violence Divisions are leading the investigation into the shooting of the two women.
The MNPD had no prior domestic violence reports involving the parties, according to the release.
