Metro Police say Kyrin Gardner, 18, placed a playground full of children in imminent danger of injury or death on Tuesday when he pointed a gun at several 9-year-old children at Preston Taylor Ministries in West Nashville.
According to an affidavit, at 12:10 PM on Tuesday, officers received a call that an individual was pointing a gun at the kids on the playground on Indiana Ave. Witnesses say the children were in instant fear of their lives and ran inside to an adult inside the facility.
Once MNPD arrived on scene, they located 18-year-old Kyrin Phillip Gardner walking nearby, and conducted a casual encounter. He stated he only had a small amount of weed on his person, when asked if he had anything the officer should know about, however when he opened his pocket to show where the weed was, the officer clearly saw a small black pistol protruding from Gardner’s right pants pocket.
Mr. Gardner was told to put his hands behind his back, however he ignored the command and proceeded to run and reach inside his pocket where the pistol was located. An officer immediately “assisted Mr. Gardner to the ground” until more units could arrive. After further investigation it was discovered that the pistol located on Mr. Gardner was fully loaded with one in the chamber, the pistol also matched the description of the pistol the suspect was carrying when he pointed it at the children.
Video surveillance was pulled from Preston Taylor ministries and showed Mr. Gardner walking down the sidewalk of Preston Taylor ministries at the same time the call came out and pointing the handgun at them, just as the children had described.
