One of three shootings that occurred in Knoxville.
Via Daily Mail:
A 15-year-old high school football player was killed as he shielded three girls from gunfire as several men went on a shooting spree in Tennessee on Thursday night.
Zaevion Dobson was hanging out on a porch with his brother and some friends when a group of men walked up and started shooting at them, Zach Dobson said.
Police said the shooters, who they believe may have been gang-affiliated, picked a group at random who were ‘just hanging out and trying to celebrate the holidays’.
‘Why would you shoot random bystanders for nothing?’ Zach Dobson told WBIR-TV.
‘We were just sitting there chilling. Zae, he was an awesome kid, awesome brother.’
The shootings first began around 7pm, when multiple rounds were fired into a Knoxville home and struck resident Lisa Perry, 46, in the lower back. She is expected to survive.
A 10-year-old child was also inside the home but was not hit, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Perry’s 23-year-old son, Brandon Perry, and several other men then drove to the neighborhood where Dobson lived and ‘randomly fired multiple times’, according to Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch.
The girls shielded by Dobson were not hurt, he said.
Brandon Perry died early Friday morning, after he crashed a BMW into an apartment where an ‘elderly resident’ was sleeping inside and not injured by the accident.
Police believe Perry was shot before the crash.
Two men fled the wrecked car but were caught by police and questioned. One has since been released.
Christopher Bassett, 20, has been charged with being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and violation of probation. He is being held without bond.
Rausch said investigators think the shootings are gang-related, but he said there didn’t appear to be a motive to target Dobson.
‘These cowardly and senseless acts of violence must stop,’ he said.
‘We should be preparing to celebrate the Christmas holiday, but now we have two men who are dead.’