NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The murder of a musician rocked our community, and now neighbors are concerned about crime in the College Heights - Clifton neighborhood.
Residents feel like they're in jail, locked in their own homes, because they're scared to go outside.
"I don't let my kids come outside like I used to now. I don't want them to get caught in that crossfire. It's a lot of stuff been going on, break-ins, shootings, it's just getting outrageous over here. It was quiet over here at first," said Shanna Reed.
Reed moved to the neighborhood a decade ago after MDHA built new affordable housing at the Preston Taylor Homes for low income residents. Reed is concerned about the crime after seeing an influx of break-ins reported nearby on her home security system.
She said she'd never expect a kind person like Kyle Yorlets to be gunned down close by on Torbett Street.
"Sometimes my son will walk up there and he would play the little guitar for him and that's it, but other than that, he ain't no bad person, I ain't seen him bother nobody," she said.
Police said a group of kids killed him during a robbery when he refused to give up his car to them.
"We used to wave at him all the time. He was a real sweet guy, we'd see him come outside with his guitar on his back and we'll wave and I'll go on up the street," Reed said.
She said one of the suspects, 14-year-old Roniyah Mcknight, lived a block away from the victim. The other suspects Diamond Lewis, Decorrius Wright, and the unidentified 12 and 13-year-old also live not too far away. Her kids go to school with some of them.
"That's why I keep my sons away from these streets baby. I got the oldest one in sports and one in school and I keep them away from all that," Reed said.
College Heights/Clifton is a neighborhood that's starting to change. A couple new homes have been built, but crime hasn't gone away. You can see on this map, in addition to the homicide, there has been assaults and vehicle thefts reported recently.
