NEWS

Sister: Teen who shot family before school has 'anger issues'

Natalie Neysa Alund
USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee
Fredricka Williams, 27, talks about her 16-year-old brother who is accused of shooting at family members Tuesday morning because he didn't want to get up for school.

The two-story brick and cream shuttered apartments rest closely together as part of a fenced-in neighborhood on Porter Road — a thoroughfare that veers off Eastland Avenue, the main stretch running between many popular East Nashville eateries and coffee shops.

As neighbors and residents awoke Tuesday morning to head to school, work or vote in Tennessee's presidential primaries, a 16-year-old boy argued with family members about going to class, authorities said. He grabbed a gun out of a closet and opened fire, wounding three of his relatives, police said. He lived in the Berkshire Place Apartments and the shooting forced nearby schools and a voting precinct to briefly go on lockdown.

Now, two of the teen's older siblings are speaking out, questioning what led him to pull the trigger. But they said they aren't surprised he got his hands on a gun.

"Only he knows. Why he did what he did we don't know. That's in his head," the teen's 27-year-old sister, Fredricka Williams, said Wednesday as she stood outside the apartment building.

Teen, peeved at getting up for school, shoots family

Williams, a Brentwood resident, said family members have not had the chance to speak with the teen since Nashville police detained him after investigators say he grabbed a 9 mm handgun from his bedroom closet and shot his 67-year-old grandmother, 12-year-old sister and 6-year-old nephew.

The two children who each suffered minor wounds in the shooting have been released from the hospital, the family said. Their grandmother, who was shot twice, remained in stable condition at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Family members say she is expected to recover.

The teen also tried to shoot his 42-year-old mother in the home's living room, but police say the woman ducked behind a couch. The teen's 2-year-old sister was also nearby but was not struck by bullets. The teen remained detained Wednesday at the Davidson County Juvenile Detention Center.

Williams said their mother was too shook up to talk Wednesday and described her younger brother as a quiet teen who likes video games and often hung out with neighborhood boys in their apartment complex. In the past, Williams said, there were times when her brother didn't want to get up for school, but he was never violent about it.

"But he has a short temper when he gets mad. Anger issues," Williams said of her brother, who is one of her seven siblings.

Joe Williams, the teen's 19-year-old brother, said he and family have no idea where their brother got a gun. But he said he wasn't surprised he got his hands on one and blamed it on the neighborhood the family lives in, and the wrong crowd the brother hangs out with.

"It's all about kids in these kinds of environments," Joe Williams said. "It might look pretty, but somewhere in the neighborhood there's a bad apple.”

Joe Williams said he'd previously sat his brother down to chat with him about the crowd he hung around.

"(I told him) don't be a follower, be a leader," Williams said, hanging his head and turning silent.

On Wednesday Metro police spokesman Kris Mumford said investigators were still attempting to track down the owner of the 9 mm. It has not been reported stolen.

The shooting is the latest incidence of violence involving young adults in Nashville, a problem Mayor Megan Barry is working to address with an ongoing youth violence initiative. Of the 75 criminal homicides last year, 20 of the victims were teenagers or younger — the highest number of youth deaths to hit Nashville in the past decade. The teens all died as a result of gunfire.

Barry on Wednesday called the latest shooting a tragic reminder of the importance of the community's mission to reduce youth violence.

"While thankfully none of the injuries were life-threatening, we can’t accept a world where children see guns as a solution to their problems," Barry said in a statement. "This was just one of far too many cases of youth violence that moved us to organize the youth violence summit."

Back near the Berkshire Place Apartments late Wednesday morning, several of the teen's family members piled into separate cars at the apartment complex to head to the hospital to visit their grandmother. They also await the fate of their brother.

"It's all in God's hands, what's to come," Joe Williams said. "He made a mistake. And they'll be (repercussions)."

Reach Natalie Neysa Alund at 615-259-8072. Follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.