A fight between two women near the Five Below store at Opry Mills Mall ended with a handgun allegedly pulled from a purse and one woman screaming for someone to shoot the other, according to an arrest affidavit. Both women now face felony charges and are being held on $20,000 bonds each.
According to WSMV, officers with the Metro Nashville Police Department responded to the altercation inside the mall near Five Below. Police spoke with Lafreda Batey and Shanna Thomas, who had gotten into a fight with another woman and her mother, the outlet reports.
The affidavit described a chaotic scene: Thomas reportedly pulled a black handgun from a black purse while Batey was allegedly yelling “shoot her,” per the report. The victim later told police that after the altercation, the purse was handed to Batey, who also displayed the handgun, according to the same account.
Charges and Bond Set for Both Women
Both Batey and Thomas were charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and booked on a $20,000 bond each, the station's report states. No further details on the identities of the other woman and her mother involved in the fight, nor on injuries or what followed the booking, were included in the report.
Mall Has Seen Gun Violence Before
Opry Mills Mall has been the site of other firearm incidents in recent years, though these are separate cases that do not establish any pattern tied to the latest arrests. In 2020, Metro Nashville police sought a suspect after a man said he fired three shots and wounded a member of what was described as a rival group in a mall hallway, according to a notice from the Metro Nashville Police Department.
In 2026, a 19-year-old suspect was taken into custody after police said he opened fire inside the mall and wounded a man, in an incident that occurred in the week before Nov. 8, 2026, according to the Tennessean. Separately, Juwan Gaines was convicted by a jury on March 31, 2023, of attempted first-degree murder, employment of a firearm during a dangerous felony, and reckless endangerment, the paper reported.
In a separate shooting at the mall, a 22-year-old man died after an altercation that began as pushing and shoving outside the Lids and Auntie Anne's stores between people who knew each other, according to ABC News. Police said in that case the suspected shooter was taken into custody after initially fleeing the scene, per the same report.
