NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – At least one person was killed and seven others injured in what officials are calling a “mass casualty” incident at a church in Antioch Sunday morning.

Metro police responded to the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ on Pin Hook Road at 11 a.m.

Nashville fire officials confirm there at least one person and seven others were injured. Most of the injured are over 65 years old, authorities said. The gunman was wounded and was taken to a hospital. No details were available about his condition.

The victims were transported to area hospitals.

Roads around the church are currently shut down.

Police have released the name of a woman who was fatally shot by a suspect at a church in Tennessee.

Metropolitan Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron says 39-year-old Melanie Smith of Smyrna, Tennessee, was shot Sunday outside the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in the Nashville neighborhood of Antioch.

Aaron says Smith was shot as she left the church, and the suspect then proceeded inside.

Aaron says the suspect, 25-year-old Emanuel Kidega Samson, had two pistols when he entered the church. He says Samson came to the United States from Sudan in 1996 and was a legal U.S. resident “but not necessarily a U.S. citizen.” Samson had a Tennessee driver’s license.

Aaron says six others were shot, and the church’s usher, 22-year-old Robert Engle, was pistol-whipped by Samson, who then apparently shot himself.

Aaron says church members indicated Samson attended the church one to two years ago.

Police say Samson will be charged with murder and attempted murder.

Before the shooting, a man with the same name and description as the suspect posted some bizarre messages on social media.

On Samson’s Facebook page, a post in the hours before the shooting read, “Everything you’ve ever doubted or made to be believe as false, is real. & vice versa, B.”

Another post read, “Become the creator instead of what’s created. Whatever you say, goes.”

And a third post read, “You are more than what they told us.”

Samson also posted several shirtless photos of himself flexing his muscles. In some he wears a tank top that reads “Beast Mode.”

Nashville police have not commented on the posts.

A Christian school says a pastor is among the wounded.

Metropolitan Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron identified two of those shot Sunday at the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Antioch on Sunday as 60-year-old David Spann and his 65-year-old wife, Peggy. Aaron said David Spann was in critical but stable condition, while Peggy Spann was stable.

Aaron says he didn’t know whether David Spann was the church’s pastor. But media outlets report Spann is the pastor and is known at the church by his nickname, Joey Spann.

In a statement on Facebook, Nashville Christian School says Joey Spann is a Bible teacher at the school. He’s also a high school and middle school basketball coach.

A witness to the shooting is calling an usher who confronted a gunman “a hero.”

Minerva Rosa has been a member at the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in the Nashville neighborhood of Antioch for eight years. She was inside when the suspect opened fired Sunday.

Rosa says the suspect said nothing as he shot churchgoers. As the gunman made his way down the aisle, Rosa says the pastor started shouting, “‘Run! Run! Gunshots!”

Metropolitan Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron say the usher was pistol whipped as he confronted the suspect, who then apparently shot himself during the struggle. Aaron says the usher then went to his own car to retrieve his gun, returned and stood over the suspect until police arrived.

Rosa says without the usher, the situation “could be worse.”

Aaron didn’t immediately identify the usher but calls him “an extraordinarily brave individual.”

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry says the shooting is “a terrible tragedy for our city.”

Barry issued a statement Sunday afternoon after the shooting.

Barry says her “heart aches for the family and friends of the deceased as well as for the wounded victims and their loved ones. Their lives have been forever changed, as has the life of their faith community at Burnette Chapel Church of Christ.”

Barry has dealt with her personal tragedy after her 22-year-old son died of an apparent drug overdose near Denver on July 29.

She says her administration “will continue to work with community members to stop crime before it starts, encourage peaceful conflict resolution, and promote non-violence.”