this part of nashville, can you tell me what s in the area. is this sort of a strip mall area with a movie theater and a number of stores and can you just describe it used to be the hickory hollow mall. forgive me maddy. let s listen into this public information officer. we had a report of an active shooter at the hickory 8 movie theater. the individual was reported to be armed with a gun and a hatchet. there s a report that one person may have suffered a wound from the hatchet. that s still being sorted out by the fire department now trying to take a look at what injuries we may have here. the the response from the south precinct was swift. an officer entered the theater where mad max was showing. the officer started at projection room and started clearing down. he encountered the gunman. the gunman opened fire on the south precinct officer. that officer returned his fire
which is in the same parking lot next door. fbi s nashville field office confirms its responded there. it also confirms it has responded to the scene. atf on scene. a law enforcement force say investigators are running down possible motives for the attack. the investigation is fluid. here s what we know he didn t shoot anybody or pull out a hatchet at the print store in the morning. by 1:00 in the afternoon he s inside the movie theater. the initial report according to news channel 5, a reporter on scene there is saying that the report is he pulled out a hatchet and then he pulled out a gun. no reports that he did any firing. then police arrived. and when police arrived. a police officer goes in according to the authorities, goes in to the projection room leaves the projection room encountered the suspect, the suspect fires at the officer. from all we know that s the first time that anyone did any firing. the suspect fired at a police officer.
some of the people in the theater were beyond um, when the officer encountered him, we believe his was the only one in there at the present time, though i must say the officers did not know that. the officer who encountered him first went into the projection room, and then tried to work his way down and ultimately came to a level where he encountered the gunman. then when the s.w.a.t. team got in, the room was full of this chemical irritant, somewhat cloudy in there. the entire theater has been cleared. there s no one with any substantive injury, other than the suspect who was fatally wounded by metro police officers. reporter: i wanted to ask, when they were in the theater, he started praying with the pepper, did the individuals flee the theater at that point? do you know? that is my supposition, yes, because when the sergeant arrived, he was one of the first
affiliate there in nashville. the response from the south precinct was swift. an officer entered the theater where mad max was showing. the officer started at the projection room and started clearing down. he encountered the gunman. the gunman opened fire on the south precinct officer. that officer returned his fire and then backed away out of the theater. the s.w.a.t. team responded. the s.w.a.t. team engaged this gunman. some minutes later. there was a gun fire and the gunman is deceased. just inside the movie theater. so we believe the imminent threat has been ended. however, the gunman had two backpack type bags with him. one on one him, another that was left. we want to make sure that there s no danger with those backpacks so officers are working now from hazardous
devices to clear those backpacks. so that gives you more information as to how that all went down and i know you were talking about what may have happened in the back parking lot versus the theater and as don aaron said, that started in the projection room as far as the officer confronting the suspect and when that suspect offered fire and the officer returning that fire. those two backpacks inspected right now. we do know that that movie, that mad max movie started at 1:15. the very time that witnesses reported gun fire and those calls were made to 911. metro police responding to that. still no word of vanderbilt medical center of anyone taken there and eyewitness reports of one american covered in blood and one person was hurt by that suspect wielding the hatchet. in addition to that gun. so we certainly want to clear