NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A suspect crashed a car overnight after carjacking a mother and her 11-year-old son at gunpoint.
Metro Nashville police said the incident began shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday outside a Kroger on Old Hickory Boulevard. Off-duty officer was driving towards the store when he heard a woman screaming for help.
"She kept saying keep going, keep going. He's going to kill my baby," said Officer Gordon Stovall. "I exited the vehicle, I saw the suspect holding a 10 to 11-year-old boy and he very tightly held onto his shoulder. He had a gun pointing into his back. I put him at gunpoint and started giving orders to release the child and to let the kid go."
The woman later told officers a man she noticed following her around the store asked her what kind of vehicle she drove. When she refused to answer, the man grabbed her son. The woman reported that when she noticed the man had a gun, she told him she would give him the keys to her car if he let her son go.
The man, identified as 31-year-old Devan Thompson, escorted the victims outside and asked the woman to show him where her vehicle was parked.
At the same time, officer Stovall who had just finished his shift for the evening was walking into the store. He saw Thompson pointing the gun at the child, and called for backup. Officers say Thompson then pushed the boy away and drove off in the woman's car.
A four-mile chase ensued until the car flipped and crashed in a ravine near Lebanon Pike and Munn Road.
Police say an officer and K9 Braxx approached the car after the crash, and Thompson then hit Braxx with an ice scraper. The K9 was later checked out by a veterinarian.
As Thompson was being taken into custody, police say he bit an officer on the arm.
Thompson was taken to a hospital for treatment from the crash before being booked into jail. He was charged with two counts of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of assaulting an officer and felon in possession of a handgun. He was previously convicted for aggravated robbery and evading arrest.
The two officers, along with the mother and child involved, are going to be alright.
Officer Stovall said he believes the situation to be a strange coincidence.
"I thought, this can't be real," said Stovall. "You don't just drive up to a hostage situation and find yourself right smack dab in the middle of it. Even for a police officer, that's a strange thing to come across."
