ABC News — One woman has been shot dead and six other churchgoers were wounded after a gunman opened fire Sunday morning at a Tennessee church as services were ending, authorities said. The Department of Justice and the FBI have opened a federal civil rights investigation of the shooting at Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Antioch, a neighborhood in Davidson County governed by Nashville. A gunman in the church parking lot shot and killed Melanie Smith, 39, as she was walking to her car when a prayer service was letting out. The shooter then entered the church through the sanctuary’s main door with two pistols and “began indiscriminately shooting,” Metropolitan Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron said. He then went inside the rear of the church and opened fire, setting off multiple rounds, wounding six people. A church member who ran up and confronted the gunman was pistol-whipped by him, the police spokesman said. 22-year-old Robert Engle is the church's usher who physically confronted the shooter and is right now being considered the hero for confronting the shooter. After a struggle, the gunman then accidentally shot himself in the left side of his chest. Update 4:25 p.m.: Nashville police officers have identified the shooter as 25-year-old Emanuel Kidega Samson. He will be charged with one count of murder Sunday night and additional charges later on, police said.
A shooting at a church in Nashville, Tennessee, leaves one dead and seven injured. The suspected shooter is arrested.