NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/CLARKSVILLENOW) — Witnesses and police described a chaotic scene as a masked attacker armed with two guns shot seven people, killing one, in a Tennessee church before he was subdued.
The church pastor yelled for the congregants to run after the attacker came through the church silently shooting, according to a witness Sunday in a Nashville neighborhood.
A 22-year-old usher named Robert Engle is being hailed as a hero for tackling the gunman and holding him at gunpoint until police arrived.
Police identified the attacker as 25-year-old Emanuel Kidega Samson, who had at one point attended the church.
No motive was immediately determined, but Samson was charged with one count of murder, with additional charges expected, according to Nashville police. He will have his first appearance in court on Wednesday.
Police records show Samson made a suicidal statement to his father in June and had a volatile relationship with a woman that twice involved law enforcement intervention this year.
Police records in Murfreesboro show that Samson’s father reported that his son had texted him on June 27 to say “Your phone is off, I have a gun to my head.”
Officers in January responded to two domestic disturbances between Emanuel Samson and a woman he had been in a relationship with.
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