NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A suspected burglar was arrested Thursday night after reportedly firing gunshots at responding Metro Nashville Police officers.
Officers were sent to a burglary call at a home on Foothill Drive in South Nashville at about 5:45p.m. Thursday.
According to Metro Nashville Police spokesperson Kris Mumford, the homeowners returned home and saw signs that someone broke into the house. The homeowners immediately went to a neighbor's to call police.
Officers were in the home when they said three gunshots were fired toward them through an interior wall by a man later identified as 28-year-old Elias Marquez-Henriquez. The officers retreated, Mumford said, and then set up a perimeter around the home. Metro Police said the gunshots barely missed two responding officer.
"It's a real credit to these officers, to the training that they've received," explained Mumford. "That they would enter this residence and immediately fall back on their training when those shots are coming toward them to quickly exit, and provide cover for themselves and then also to the neighbors who then had to be evacuated."
Neighbors were alarmed to see what was unfolding.
"Once I saw three to four cop cars, and noticed they were getting larger weapons, it seemed like a bigger issue than just stopping to figure something out," said Dagan Crews, who lives across the street.
Mumford said Marquez-Henriquez remained inside the home. Officers spoke to him over a speaker, calling for his surrender. Eventually, responding officers realized the suspect spoke Spanish and brought in a Spanish-speaker to talk to him, according to Mumford.
At one point, the suspect walked onto the porch but then retreated into the home again. That's when, according to police, a K-9 was sent in and apprehended the suspect.
Officers later learned the pistol that was fired at the responding officers was owned by one of the homeowners and kept in the home.
At the time of Marquez-Henriquez's arrest, police said he was free on bond for a vehicle theft arrest in February.
Marquez-Henriquez is charged with two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of reckless endangerment, and aggravated burglary in connection with Thursday's incident on Foothill Drive.
The Metro Nashville Police Department said it is withholding his mugshot pending investigation into other crimes committed before Thursday's burglary.
