Waffle House Shooting: Police Initially Sent To Wrong Location

NASHVILLE, TN -- Following a frantic 911 call reporting the deadly shooting at a Murfreesboro Pike Waffle House, Metro dispatchers quickly sent police to respond.

Unfortunately, they initially sent officers to the wrong Murfreesboro Pike Waffle House.

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Four people - Taurean Sanderlin, 29, Joe Perez, 20, DeEbony Groves, 21, and Akilah Dasilva, 23 - were killed in the shooting in the early morning hours of April 22 at the Waffle House at 3517 Murfreesboro Pike.

According to transcripts acquired by WKRN, however, officers were initially sent to the Waffle House at 816 Murfreesboro Pike, nearly nine miles away.

Ninety seconds later, the dispatchers were able to correct the location, but the Waffle Houses are in two different precincts - the 816 Murfreesboro Pike location is in the Hermitage Precinct and the 3517 Murfreesboro Pike location is in the South Precinct's bailiwick. The call to the South Precinct went out at 3:28 a.m., two minutes after the first call came in.

The first officers arrived at the correct Waffle House at 3:32 a.m.

Emergency communications officials told WKRN that since the 911 call came in on a cell phone, an immediate pinpoint location was not possible and given the necessity of a rapid response, the dispatcher made a snap judgment and sent officers to the more familiar, established Waffle House - the 3517 Murfreesboro Pike location is so new that it does not appear on Google StreetView, for example.

An investigation is under way.

Photo via Metro Nashville Police