Nashville police are investigating three separate claims of self-defense in a spate of violent incidents that left one man dead after a downtown bar brawl and two others wounded by gunfire.
They all happened in a span of five hours.
Officers were called to a bar on 2nd Avenue North about 2:30 a.m. Oct. 25 after a fight that began inside spilled outside.
Torey Ward, 45, of Atlanta, was in the bathroom when his girlfriend had an encounter with a 37-year-old Nashville man, the Metro Nashville Police Department said in a statement.
"When Ward came out, a verbal argument ensued. Based on the argument, the entire group was asked to leave by bar staff," the statement said.
Once outside, Ward and the Nashville man got into a fight.
Witnesses reported the
Nashville man punched and held Ward in a chokehold. He told police he held Ward like that "based off of fear for his own safety," the police statement said. Ward's girlfriend told police that she tried to intervene after her boyfriend hit the Nashville man in the chest multiple times, but was then assaulted by another woman.
Ward was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he died, police said. An autopsy was to be performed.
No charges had been filed as of early Oct. 26, and any findings will be turned over to the Davidson County District Attorney's Office.
Three hours later, police were called to a strip mall in the 400 block of Bell Road and found a 35-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the head.
The two men met briefly inside a hookah lounge, where the 35-year-old asked a 31-year-old if he could buy cocaine, police said.
"The 31-year-old said he told the man he didn’t use narcotics and left," police said. "The 31-year-old man who admits responsibility for the shooting told detectives that the man he shot was armed with a gun and was attempting to rob him in the parking lot."
The younger man said he left the scene because he feared for his safety. Police stopped him in the 600 block of Bell Road, the department said.
"He said he was going back to the scene to meet with officers when he was stopped," police said. "Two guns were recovered. One at the shooting scene and one from the 31-year-old’s car. The self-defense claim remains under investigation. No charges have been placed."
A second man was shot in an unrelated incident outside the Greyhound bus station about 7:30 a.m. "after throwing hot coffee into the guard's face and attacking him."
Jacory McIntosh, 22, will be charged with felony aggravated assault after he's released from the hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds to his hip and leg, a police statement said.
The security guard told police that he'd asked McIntosh to leave the station about 45 minutes before the attack. The man was talking with a coworker when "McIntosh approached and, unprovoked, threw hot coffee at his face and began striking him," police said.
The man was knocked to the ground and a magazine for his firearm fell out of his security vest, police said. McIntosh then picked it up and started hitting the guard in the head and said "that he was going to kill him."
Video footage captured the entire incident.
The guard got up and drew his gun. McIntosh "is seen making a slight movement toward" the guard before he fired, police said.
The guard suffered burns and bruising to his face and head.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Man dead after brawl outside Nashville bar, self-defense claims investigated
