In the late summer of 2016, a dispute simmering between two men in Nashville, Tennessee, tragically boiled over, leaving one of them dead. Rickie Cornell Anderson, a 43-year-old male, became the victim of a fatal shooting in a public housing development. The incident cut his life short and led to a years-long legal process to hold his killer accountable.
The fatal encounter occurred outside 144 Charles E. Davis Boulevard in the J.C. Napier public housing development.
In a confrontation fueled by what authorities would later describe as a 'lingering dispute,' Rickie Cornell Anderson was shot in the midsection. Emergency services rushed him to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, but the gravity of his injuries proved to be too severe, and he succumbed to the gunshot wound.
The investigation into the shooting quickly pointed to a suspect. Tyrus D. Evans, who was 22 years old at the time, was identified as the individual who had targeted Anderson in the midst of a crowd. Within a week of the shooting, members of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department's Special Response Team located and apprehended Evans at his sister's residence on Magnum Drive. He was subsequently charged with criminal homicide for his role in Anderson's death and held on a $500,000 bond.
The legal proceedings against Tyrus D. Evans culminated on August 1, 2019. In a Nashville courtroom, Evans, whose date of birth is November 5, 1993, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, a lesser charge than the initial first-degree murder indictment. For the killing of Rickie Cornell Anderson, Evans was sentenced to serve 15 years in the Tennessee Department of Correction, bringing a close to the nearly three-year-long quest for justice for Anderson and his family.
