Federal prosecutors have brought a fresh charge against LaGarrion Blacksmith, 36, accusing the convicted felon of illegally possessing ammunition in the 2023 shooting outside Trvth Lounge on Dickerson Pike that killed Chancellor Eddins and wounded another man. The new federal case lands on top of a years‑long state investigation and follows Blacksmith’s 2025 arrest in Atlanta.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee said Thursday that surveillance video shows Blacksmith firing a gun outside the club and that Metro Nashville Police Department crime lab testing linked 16 shell casings from the scene to the same weapon, according to WSMV. Prosecutors say the case moved into federal territory because Blacksmith was already a convicted felon when the shots were fired.
Arrest and state charges
Metro police say Blacksmith was wanted on state charges that include criminal homicide, attempted criminal homicide and being a felon in possession of a weapon. Detectives obtained arrest warrants in November 2023, then tracked him to Atlanta, where he was taken into custody on June 10, 2025, after a multiagency search, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department. He was brought back to Nashville and jailed on bond while the state homicide case moves forward.
Why prosecutors added an ammunition count
In recent years, federal prosecutors in the Middle District have leaned on ammunition‑possession charges to get violent suspects into federal court while state cases play out. The strategy relies on the federal law that bars felons from having firearms or ammunition, a rule laid out in 18 U.S.C. § 922. The U.S. Attorney’s Office has used the same approach in other local cases, as reflected in recent U.S. Attorney’s Office releases highlighting felons sent to federal prison for ammunition offenses.
The Trvth Lounge shooting
According to police accounts from the night of February 18, 2023, Eddins and a friend got into a verbal dispute inside Trvth Lounge. Security reportedly warned them not to leave, but gunfire soon erupted in the parking lot. Eddins was found just outside the club’s door and died at the scene, according to a 2023 statement from the Metro Nashville Police Department. Investigators say a mix of witness statements, surveillance video and forensic work tied evidence from the scene to Blacksmith.
What’s next
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the federal ammunition charge carries a potential sentence of up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if Blacksmith is convicted, according to WSMV. How that case will be sequenced with the ongoing state homicide prosecution, and whether federal authorities will add more counts, will become clearer as new filings hit the federal docket.
