LOBELVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A 15-year-old was charged Thursday with one count of criminal homicide in the fatal shooting of a longtime member of the National Guard at a Tennessee armory, according to the state’s Bureau of Investigation.
The suspect didn’t work at the armory, which is usually locked, but somehow gained access to the building and fired several shots Wednesday evening, authorities said. One struck Sgt. 1st Class Michael W. Braden, 45, who had been with the guard for 20 years, law enforcement and Guard officials said. He died later at a hospital.
The teenager, questioned as a person of interest early Thursday, was being held without bond at a juvenile detention facility, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesman Josh DeVine said. The suspect was arrested without incident at his family’s home in Lobelville, about 75 miles southwest of Nashville, officials said.
It was unclear whether the suspect and victim knew each other.
DeVine said the building doesn’t have surveillance cameras, but at least one other person in addition to the shooter and the victim was at the armory at the time of the shooting. But DeVine said it was unclear whether there were any eyewitnesses.
The teenager could be tried as an adult, but DeVine said that as of Thursday afternoon, he didn’t believe the case had been transferred to the adult system.
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