Hookah Bar Shooting Suspect Sought

NASHVILLE, TN -- Metro Police continue to search for a man accused of shooting and killing another at a Midtown hookah bar in May.

Investigators say 23-year-old Deion Woodruff killed Marquondis Thompson, 21, at the Emerald hookah lounge May 1. Known to frequent Edgehill, police have been unable to find Woodruff.

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Thompson was killed and another injured in a shooting during a fight at the Church Street hookah bar on the night of May 1.

Metro Police were called to Medusa shortly after 11 that night. Officers said when they arrived, they heard gunshots and saw people spilling out of the hookah bar. Thompson collapsed in the street with gunshot wounds. He later died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Though apparently unrelated, there have been eight hookah bar shootings in Nashville since mid-May 2017.

The other seven are:

• May 14, 2017: A man was killed in a shootout in the parking lot of the infamous and now-shuttered Cloud IXin Inglewood.
• Dec. 30, 2017: Jason McClain, 30, was shot and killed in Cloud IX's parking lot.
• Jan. 1, 2018: One person was injured in a shooting at Lebanon Nights on Charlotte Pike in West Nashville.
• Jan. 5, 2018: One person was injured in a shooting following a fight at Tarboosh in Midtown.
• Jan. 26, 2018: A man was shot and injured outside Arabian Palace.
• May 11, 2018: One person was killed in an apparent parking lot dispute outside Arabian Palace.
• June 8, 2018: One person was injured when someone fired a gun across Charlotte Pike and into a crowd outside Lebanon Nights.

Photo via Metro Nashville Police