Tom Pappert, the lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said the photograph released by the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) that shows the 15-year-old arrested for the fatal Wednesday night shooting in Bellevue smiling after the incident is “bone-chilling.”
On Thursday, Pappert reported that MNPD confirmed the arrest of 15-year-old De’Anthony Osasosifo and named him as a suspect in the Wednesday night shooting in the parking lot of the Red Caboose Park in Bellevue that left a 13-year-old dead and his 16-year-old sister hospitalized.
The incident reportedly began as a fight between “middle school” girls at the park, which escalated to include gunfire. Osasosifo was arrested less than a mile away from the scene while “walking on Highway 70.”
The gun Osasosifo allegedly used in the incident was recovered by an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) dog.
MNPD, which announced Osasosifo is being charged with criminal homicide for the incident, released a photo of the 15-year-old, which showed him looking directly at the camera with a smile on his face.
Pappert said the photograph of the alleged killer is “bone-chilling” as he looks “happy or at least bemused with the situation.”
“There’s no concern that his life is over, that this is the end of everything, that he [allegedly] killed a friend. None of that seems to be there,” Pappert said on Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
When it comes to the overall gathering of young people in a public park to reportedly fight, Pappert questioned whether the incident is a new type of “youth culture” that is making its way to Music City.
“It’s truly a bizarre situation and I wonder if this is emblematic. I wonder if this is just a new culture that’s forming, a youth culture that’s forming before our very eyes and it’s making its way to Nashville. We’ve seen similar senseless violence in stereotypical big cities, the drill wrapping scene in New York where people are killed regularly for no real reason other than to put it in a rap lyric. There’s no Indication that’s what’s going on here, but it is senseless violence,” Pappert said.
Pappert went on to address the response from elected officials following Wednesday night’s shooting, pointing out how the gun used was immediately blamed for the incident despite the alleged shooter being six years too young to possess a handgun.
“One question I have, of course, is that there are plenty of politicians saying this is a gun issue and this is a gun crime because a handgun was used. My question is: How did this young teenage boy get a handgun as he’s alleged to have shot these people? That is, of course, very illegal. You’re not supposed to have that until you’re 21 years old,” Pappert explained.
“There are lots of unanswered questions here, and I think last night police were surprised by the incident and mostly trying to assure the public that they are safe because [Bellevue] is not traditionally, or at least in the past, thought of as a particularly dangerous area,” Pappert added.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
