by Paul Randall Dickerson, Associated Press
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (AP) - Two police officers were wounded and a suspect killed during a Monday gun battle along a busy thoroughfare following a bank robbery, authorities said.
The incident began about 1 p.m. after a robbery at the Bank of America branch on Franklin Road in this suburb just south of Nashville, said a spokesman for Nashville police, which assisted with the investigation.
The suspect, identified as a 40-year-old man from San Jose, was armed with an assault rifle when he was shot dead by police in the street, said police spokesman Don Aaron. Authorities believe the gunman was the same robber who held up a bank in Nashville, about 10 miles north, earlier in the day.
His identity will be released Tuesday.
Katrina Lopiccollo, a clerk at an Exxon station near the bank, was standing by one of the gas pumps when gunfire erupted less than 100 feet away in the street.
She described watching a police car head north as a man with a rifle walked across a store’s parking lot and into the four-lane street.
“He just walked out on the street and starting shooting into the police car. He walked right toward it and kept shooting,” Lopiccollo said.
The gunman shot Officer Stephanie Bellis, 26, and Sgt. Tommy Walsh, 37, authorities said.
Walsh was wounded in his left leg and foot and underwent surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he was in stable condition. Bellis was treated for a gunshot wound to the lower right arm and released.
Bellis got out of her car and left it rolling to use as a shield against the gunman.
“She continued to return fire until the vehicle got stuck, then she charged the suspect, continuing to shoot at him,” Brentwood Police Chief Ricky Watson said.
Walsh’s cruiser was approaching and the gunman attempted to ambush the sergeant, Watson said.
“He had come over and was leaning into the squad car, about to execute the officer,” the chief said.
Kendall Regan, a witness, said the suspect was screaming at officers, “Come get me! Come get me!” Regan told The Tennessean newspaper.
Other officers who arrived opened fire at the suspect and he was struck several times before he died at the scene, Watson said.
Samantha Ingle, a cashier at the Sip of Seattle coffee kiosk, saw the suspect standing in the middle of Franklin Road shooting at police with his rifle.
“I could see the sparks every time he shot. I was dumbfounded. It was surreal,” Ingle said.