A mass shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, has left two teenage brothers dead and four of their family members wounded. 

The shooting happened Friday night at a home on Torbett Street, according to a press release from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. 

A mass shooting Friday night at an apartment building in Nashville, Tennessee, has left two brothers dead and four of their family members wounded. (Photo: Metro Nashville PD/Twitter)

Zacquez Sherrell, 18, and his brother, Tavarius Sherrell, 15, were both killed in the incident. 

Their 40-year-old mother, two of their sisters, ages 16 and 20, and their 13-year-old brother were all injured and are expected to recover. 

According to the press release, suspected shooter Christian Akail Johnson, 29, and another person entered the home after knocking on the front door. Johnson, a convicted robber, was also killed. Three guns were recovered from inside the home.

Robbery is suspected as the motive, but the shooting remains under investigation. 

A neighbor, Marie Cheek, told WKRN, a local news outlet, that she heard rapid gunfire. 

“You hear pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow,” Cheek said. “It was so many people hurt that the ambulance had to try to find a way to turn around and get off the street. It was sad.” 

“Innocent people,” she said of the targeted family. “You know you’re sitting there watching the game the day after Thanksgiving, you don’t know what’s going to happen next. And the way they were bringing them bodies out of the house, it was real sad.” 

Earl Jordan, the founder and president of Partners in the Struggle, a resource for families and friends of gun violence victims in Nashville, decried the deadly incident. “As a community, we’ve got to get better,” he said. “As a city, we have to get better.” 

“Those friends of these youths who passed away yesterday, they’re going through it,” Jordan said. “And so we’re here… because they need to understand that now that this has happened, what are these youths going to do to learn from it and to try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

According to the Nashville Police Department’s Data Dashboard, this year there have been 74 fatal shootings in the city, and 421 nonfatal shootings, with African Americans making up the majority of victims. 

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