Nashville, TN – According to the police officials, the 23-year-old suspect, later identified as Deangelo Lavender, was arrested on multiple criminal charges after he inexplicably attacked a 72-year-old usher in the parking lot of Cornerstone Church on Old Hickory Boulevard by hitting him in the head with a pistol.
The victim had just parked his car and was headed toward the church building when he said a the suspect ran up to him, said nothing, and hit him in the head with a pistol.
The victim tussled with Lavender, causing him to drop the gun. The victim picked it up and tossed it into his car to keep it away from Lavender.
Lavender then approached another church member in the parking lot who was on his cell phone with 911. Lavender told that 50-year-old victim that he wanted to use his phone. He refused to let him.
Lavender grabbed the phone out of the man’s hand and tried to run, but not before the phone’s owner and a third church member, a 64-year-old man, physically restrained him and put him down on the grass until police arrived.
The car Lavender drove to the church, a 2007 model Ford, was stolen early Sunday from a Lickton Pike driveway.
Lavender is being held without bond on a probation violation warrant and charges of aggravated assault for hitting the usher in the head, unlawful gun possession by a convicted felon, auto theft, vandalism, and marijuana possession.