Police: Teen girl killed in Nashville after verbal dispute

Metro police believe a petty argument among teens escalated into an act of lethal violence Tuesday night.

Margaret Gregory said she and other residents of the J.C. Napier public housing development could hear the screams of teenage girls fighting when the loud claps of gunfire first echoed through a nearby courtyard on the 100 block of Charles E. Davis Boulevard Tuesday afternoon.

“I could hear them fighting. Then I come around the corner after I heard what sounded like a car crashing into a building or something and then I saw that young girl here laying on the ground,” Gregory said. “She was breathing her last breath, and I knew then what had happened.”

According to a police affidavit, an argument started about 4:40 p.m. When the confrontation escalated, 18-year-old Antwana Smith of Hart Lane, went into an apartment, returned with a gun and pointed a firearm at the group of agitators and fired. As she stepped back, she tripped and fired a second time.

Both shots struck 14-year-old Treyonta Burleson, of Carroll Street in the chest, according to police.

Emergency crews rushed Burleson to Vanderbilt University Medical Center where she was later pronounced dead.

“These are just kids,” Gregory said. “What could this other child have done or said?”

During a photo lineup, a witness identified Smith as the shooter, the affidavit states. During a recorded interview with detectives, police say, Smith admitted to firing the gun at the victim.

“This is an incredibly senseless act that involved a reported verbal dispute,” Metro police Chief Steve Anderson said in a news release. “Parents, grandparents, teachers and neighbors must help instill in young people that violence and gunfire destroy families and are not solutions to resolving conflict.”

Hermitage Precinct detectives have charged Smithwith criminal homicide. She was being held at the Metro jail on $250,000 bond Wednesday and is slated to appear in Davidson County Criminal Court on the charge Thursday afternoon.

Metro police say they are equally disturbed by an increase in extreme teenager-on-teenager violence that has permeated the city this year.

Burleson’s death marks the 61st homicide this year, compared with 35 this time last year. Fifteen of the victims have been 18 or younger.

Reporter Jordan Buie can be reached at 615-726-5970 and on Twitter @jordanbuie