Gunfire outside Pearl Cohn High School left a 17-year-old boy critically injured shortly after classes ended. Police said the shooting happened at 2:33 p.m., three minutes after dismissal, and the campus went into a brief lockout while investigators searched for a gunman who remained at large.
Family members identified the victim as Demario Crowder, WKRN News 2 reported. The station said the shooting was just off the school grounds at 904 24th Avenue North. Crowder was shot several times, taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center and underwent surgery late Friday; his condition was reported as critical.
Police Say Teen May Have Been Targeted
According to WKRN’s account of the investigation, Crowder was not enrolled at Pearl Cohn, and police were considering whether he had been deliberately targeted. No suspect had been arrested, and police had not released a description as of the report.
Police said Crowder ran toward a stolen cream-colored Chrysler 300 after he was shot. The driver fled, and the car and driver had not been located, WKRN reported.
Second Shots-Fired Call, Unclear Connection
Officers also responded to a separate shots-fired call in the 700 block of 25th Avenue North shortly before 6 p.m. the same day. It remains unclear whether that incident is connected to the shooting near Pearl Cohn, the report notes.
WKRN reported that Pearl Cohn went into a brief lockout after the shooting. Students who remained on campus were escorted home unless a parent came to pick them up.
Firearm data and school lockouts
The Metro Nashville Police Department’s firearms dashboard tracks reported fatal and non-fatal gunshot injuries and allows data to be summarized by police precinct, ZIP code or Metro Council District. The verified dashboard description does not specify a date range or provide a Pearl Cohn-specific figure, so it does not establish a count for the area around the school. A Metro Nashville Public Schools statement, reported by FOX 17, defines a lockout as a response to a nearby threat that is not specific to the school; during one, people cannot enter or leave the building.
Part of a String of Recent Shootings Involving Nashville Teens
The shooting comes just two days after a 15-year-old Whites Creek High School student was shot and killed at an East Nashville apartment complex, according to WKRN's reporting. Other recent incidents described in local coverage include an overnight stretch in which Metro Police investigated three separate shootings, one of which killed a teenager, as reported by Fox 17. In one of those incidents, police said a 14-year-old was shot in the leg, while a separate shooting on Lewis Street left a 15-year-old dead and another person injured, the station reported.
A South Nashville nightclub shooting has also left a mark on the city in recent memory, with an 18-year-old killed and a 20-year-old critically injured, according to a report from Yahoo News. As of the latest reporting, no arrests have been announced in the Pearl Cohn shooting, and Crowder's condition had not been updated beyond critical.
