After yesterday’s shooting at Music City Central, police are stepping up patrols of the central bus station:
At @Nashville_MTA bus station where 4 people were shot yesterday. As expected, there's an increased police presence. pic.twitter.com/C7mJAKgiwk
— Natalie Neysa Alund (@nataliealund) April 26, 2016
Police are saying that the incident doesn’t appear to have been random. After viewing surveillance footage from the terminal, they say that the shooter was riding the escalators up and down before shooting, as if he were looking for someone. Although two teenagers are in custody, police are not yet sure if they are suspects in the shooting.
Mayor Barry released a statement focusing on youth violence in the city, which has been a major focus in her administration, but didn’t have much to say about the MTA itself:
The shooting today at Music City Central is a tragic reminder of the plague of gun violence in our society, where one person with a gun can devastate lives and bring a city to a halt in a moment’s notice. My heart sank when I heard that youth were the victims in this shooting, and my hope and prayer for those victims and their families is that they have a full and speedy recovery.
Metro Police will be assigning additional officers to the terminal in the coming days, and as a clearer picture of the shooting today comes into view, I will be meeting with Police and MTA officials to see what we can do better to improve security at Music City Central and prevent incidents like this in the future.
As Mayor, as a Nashvillian, and as a mother, I will never accept a status quo where our children fear being victims of violence when getting on a bus, going to school, or walking in their neighborhoods. I remain committed to working with our entire community to implement recommendations from the Youth Violence Summit Report and create better outcomes for all of our children.
Yesterday, the lower level of the terminal reopened fairly soon after the incident, but the upper level buses continued to board on the streets around the station. Today, the station is back in full operation:
Music City Central will be open & operational Tues.First buses pullout @5:15. Additional MPD presence as security precaution.
— Nashville MTA (@Nashville_MTA) April 26, 2016