Police say a 33-year-old man died after gunfire broke out in the parking lot of a Rodeway Inn near Nashville International Airport.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A 28-year-old woman was charged with tampering with evidence after a man was shot and killed outside a Nashville motel just after midnight Tuesday, and detectives said they were still working to identify who fired the fatal shot.
Metro Nashville police said Donzell Young Jr., 33, was found wounded in the parking lot of the Rodeway Inn off Briley Parkway near the airport and later died at a hospital. The arrest of Jerica Taylor did not answer the central question in the case: who pulled the trigger. Instead, police said Taylor admitted she removed Young’s belongings from her motel room after the shooting, a detail that pushed the investigation beyond a motel disturbance and into a homicide case with key facts still unresolved.
Officers were sent to the motel shortly after 12 a.m. Tuesday, March 31, after reports of shots fired. When they arrived, they found Young with at least one gunshot wound. Police later said he had been shot in the chest. The early account from investigators pointed to an argument in the parking lot before the gunfire, suggesting the shooting happened in the open area outside the rooms rather than inside one of them. By Wednesday, police had publicly identified Young and confirmed that detectives were going through surveillance video from the property to piece together who was present, how the confrontation developed and what happened in the moments before the shot was fired. That review remained a major part of the case because authorities had not announced a homicide charge or named a suspected shooter.
Taylor, 28, was arrested Tuesday afternoon and booked on a tampering-with-evidence charge. Police said she admitted taking Young’s belongings out of her motel room after the shooting. Investigators did not publicly describe the items, say where they were moved or explain whether they believed the removal was meant to hide evidence, protect property or interfere with officers trying to reconstruct the scene. What police did make clear was that the action was serious enough to support a criminal charge even as the broader homicide inquiry continued. Authorities also said at least one bullet casing was found in the parking lot, another sign that detectives were working from a limited but important set of physical clues. As of Wednesday, Taylor remained jailed on a $5,000 bond. Police had not publicly announced whether she had entered a plea, whether she had a lawyer speaking on her behalf or whether anyone else had been detained for questioning.
The shooting happened at a low-rise motel along Briley Parkway, a busy corridor that connects parts of Nashville to the airport and several commercial strips. Motels in that area serve a steady flow of short-term guests, airport travelers and local renters, which can complicate investigations because witnesses may leave quickly and room assignments can change from day to day. In this case, investigators appeared to be relying on camera footage, physical evidence and interviews to establish a timeline. Police have not released a motive, have not said whether Young and Taylor knew each other before that night and have not explained how many people may have been involved in the parking-lot argument. Those gaps matter because they leave open several basic questions, including whether the shooting followed a personal dispute, whether Young was targeted and whether the gunfire came from someone on the property or someone who fled immediately afterward.
The procedural path of the case also remains narrow for now. Taylor’s charge is tied to what police say happened after the shooting, not to Young’s death itself. That means prosecutors and detectives still appear to be building the larger case before deciding whether to seek more serious counts against anyone. The next steps are likely to include more video review, forensic testing tied to the shell casing and additional interviews with people who were at or near the motel when the gunfire erupted. Investigators could also examine room records, phone data and any available security logs to determine who entered and left the property around the time of the shooting. Police had not announced a court date beyond Taylor’s initial booking status, and they had not said when they expected to release more information about a possible shooter. Until then, the homicide case remains active but incomplete.
The public version of the story is still mostly a set of hard points joined by unanswered questions: a man shot in a motel parking lot, a woman accused of moving his belongings afterward and detectives sorting through video frame by frame. That left a scene that was both ordinary and unsettled, the kind of roadside property where traffic keeps moving even after flashing lights are gone. Police statements were brief and careful, reflecting how early the case still is. Investigators have not described witness accounts in detail, and no public court filing released so far appears to explain what sparked the confrontation. For now, Young’s death stands as the clearest fact in the case, while the motive, the shooter’s identity and the exact sequence of events remain under investigation.
As of Wednesday, April 1, Taylor was being held on a $5,000 bond and no homicide charge had been announced. Detectives said they were continuing to review motel surveillance video and gather evidence as they work toward the next public update in the case.
Author note: Last updated April 3, 2026.