16-Year-Old Girl Killed Running For Cover In East Nashville Shootout

NASHVILLE, TN — Deberianah Begley was sitting on a porch at the James Cayce Homes Sunday night. There was some kind of gathering, maybe a party, in the courtyard, drawing dozens of people.

Suddenly, around 8:30 p.m., two groups of men in the crowd squared off and began shooting at each other. Begley tried to run for cover when the gunfire began. She was caught in the crossfire. She was hit. She was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where she died.

Deberianah Begley was 16.

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Witnesses told Metro Police that there were three or four men in the groups that squared off before the shooting and that the gunshots initially came from just one side. Investigators are still working to determine if people on both groups ultimately fired guns. Detectives are reviewing surveillance footage, according to MNPD, in an effort to identify anyone who was in either group.

Police are looking for a young black man with a thin build and wearing all black.

In March, at a playground just down from where Deberianah Begley was shot and killed, another teenage girl, 19-year-old Vastoria Lucas, was shot and killed when she was caught in the crossfire.

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