Nashville Police: 4-year-old girl dies after attackers shoot at car

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A 4-year-old girl who was shot while she was riding with other children in the back seat of a car that was deliberately attacked has died, Metro Nashville Police said Wednesday in a statement.

The attack happened Tuesday evening in Nashville as Taliyah Frazier sat in the back seat of a Chevrolet Malibu with 2-year-old twin boys, police said. When the car was stopped at a red light, the driver, a 22-year-old man, was shot in the arm and one of the twins was grazed by a bullet, police said. The third child wasn’t injured.

Two men got out of another car that was also stopped at the light and fired multiple rounds at the Malibu in what appeared to be a targeted shooting, according to law enforcement.

As the shots were being fired, the driver, who is the father of the twins, sped away and drove to a store where the mother of the children works. Police and paramedics arrived at the store parking lot to render aid.

A photo released by police shows one side of the car peppered with bullet holes, and at least two tires shot out.

Police said anyone with information on the shooting should call Nashville Crime Stoppers.

Answered prayers: Tennessee church recovers truckload of organ pipes

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The prayers of a Tennessee church were answered when whoever stole a moving truck near its building didn’t keep what they found inside: old organ pipes, and lots of them.

Calvary Episcopal Church in downtown Memphis had loaded a Penske truck earlier this month with nearly 2,000 organ pipes for transport to Spencer Organ Company in Boston, where they were to undergo restoration. But the truck was stolen after being loaded.

A few days later police found the truck and many of the nearly 90-year-old pipes, but they recovered even more over the weekend, the church told news outlets. The latest recovery came after police got a CrimeStoppers tip on Sunday that led officers to a van that was parked near where they found the truck, the church said.

The Memphis Police Department has impounded the van.

The organ pipes will be sent for restoration, Calvary Episcopal Church Rector Scott Walters said.

4 children die in Memphis apartment fire; father detained

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A fire in a South Memphis neighborhood killed four children Wednesday afternoon, and police detained their father, authorities said.

The blaze erupted shortly before 3 p.m. at a two-story apartment building in the Washington Heights area. It took around 50 firefighters about a half-hour to control the fire, the Memphis Fire Department tweeted.

Four children, including a 6-year-old, a 2-year-old and two 4-year-olds, were found inside a back bedroom during rescue operations, according to the Fire Department.

WREG-TV reported that the children’s grandfather said the children, two boys and two girls, were at home with their father while their mother ran an errand.

Memphis police said they detained the father, but his name and other details weren’t immediately released.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

3 more GOP governors sending National Guard troops to US-Mexico border

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The governors of Virginia, West Virginia and South Carolina on Wednesday joined a growing list of Republican leaders sending their state National Guard soldiers or other state law enforcement officers to the U.S. border with Mexico.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who is considered a possible presidential aspirant, announced an executive order directing the deployment of 100 Virginia National Guard soldiers and 21 support personnel. South Carolina’s Henry McMaster and West Virginia’s Jim Justice announced their deployments shortly thereafter, also in response to a request from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

The announcements bring to at least eight – including Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee – the number of Republican-led states deploying soldiers or offering other assistance in the weeks since Abbott appealed for help.

“The ongoing border crisis facing our nation has turned every state into a border state,” Youngkin said in a statement. “As leadership solutions at the federal level fall short, states are answering the call to secure our southern border, reduce the flow of fentanyl, combat human trafficking and address the humanitarian crisis.”

President Joe Biden announced in early May plans to send 1,500 active-duty troops to the border, in addition to the 2,500 National Guard members already there. Those military personnel were tasked with data entry, warehouse support and other administrative duties so that U.S. Customs and Border Protection can focus on fieldwork, the White House said.

But the Virginia deployment and others from Republican-led states have specifically been in support of Texas’ Operation Lone Star.