An altercation erupting in gunfire has not left J.C. Napier Homes unshaken as Nashville police disentangle the threads of a self-defense claim from Monday's shooting, which left Stiles Felton-Patterson, 20, critically injured. Nashville's law enforcement said that the incident happened in a parking lot around the five o'clock hour, as per a news release from the Metro Nashville Police Department.
Surveillance footage captures a dramatic sequence of events involving Felton-Patterson. The video shows him approaching a blue Dodge Dart with heavily tinted windows. After a brief interaction, he is seen stumbling away from the vehicle, visibly wounded by a gunshot. He discards a firearm in the direction of an unsuspecting bystander before collapsing. Responding officers arrive shortly after, aiding him as he regains consciousness, according to the same news release.
Taking on the mantle of accountability, 23-year-old Thomas Long found his way to the downtown detention center where he professed his role in the shooting, but not as an assailant, as a man cloaked in the guise of self-defense. Long claims Felton-Patterson had attempted to rob him at gunpoint, leading him to retrieve his weapon and subsequently shoot Felton-Patterson, as per his statement to authorities.
Felton-Patterson’s history of violence stretches beyond the current incident, with pending charges from a June 2023 case, including aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, and possession of a weapon during the commission of a felony. These unresolved allegations have resurfaced amid Long’s self-defense claim, echoing a pattern of violence that seems to perpetuate itself. According to police, Felton-Patterson will face these charges once he recovers, temporarily halting—but not ending—the ongoing cycle, as detailed by the Metro Nashville Police Department.
The inquiry into the shooting is ongoing, with detectives piecing together the accounts and evidences laid before them, including the two guns retrieved from the scene.
