Armed Man Killed by Security After Trying to Shoot His Way Into Nashville Federal Courthouse

A man armed with a handgun and a knife was shot and killed by a security officer Thursday morning after he tried to force his way past the entrance checkpoint of the federal courthouse in downtown Nashville, according to police. The encounter lasted only seconds, unfolding entirely within the building's screening area before the man could reach the courtrooms or offices beyond it.

Nashville Metropolitan Police Public Affairs Director Don Aaron told reporters the man, described only as being in his 40s and from out of state, arrived at the Fred D. Thompson U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building around 9:30 a.m. and approached the security checkpoint carrying a pistol. Police said he attempted to fire the weapon, but it jammed or failed to discharge. He then pulled out a knife and moved toward a security officer, who opened fire. The man was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Police said he never made it past the checkpoint into the secure part of the courthouse.

What the Numbers Show

No one else was hurt in the encounter, and investigators said a search of the man's vehicle, a white SUV left on the sidewalk outside the courthouse, turned up nothing else threatening. His identity and motive had not been released as of Thursday afternoon. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee, whose staff work inside the building, said it would await the outcome of the investigation before commenting further on the man's intentions.

The incident adds to a caseload that has been climbing for several years. The federal judiciary's own budget filings show the U.S. Marshals Service, which oversees courthouse security nationally, logged 564 threats against federal judges in fiscal year 2025, up from 509 the year before, spread across 396 individually threatened judges. Court security has become one of the judiciary's fastest-growing budget lines: the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has asked Congress for nearly $892 million for court security in fiscal year 2026, and judiciary officials have since proposed a further increase for fiscal 2027, arguing in budget materials submitted to Congress that security funding has not kept pace with the volume of threats against judges and court staff.

A Courthouse Built for This Moment

The Fred D. Thompson courthouse opened in September 2022 as a replacement for Nashville's older federal building, built specifically with modern, layered security screening at its single public entrance. Named for the late senator, actor and federal prosecutor, the six-story building on Church Street was dedicated by the General Services Administration in a 2022 ceremony attended by sitting and former U.S. senators and federal judges, and it now houses the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Attorney's Office and federal probation staff. Thursday's shooting took place at the very checkpoint the building was designed around, security officers screening visitors before they can reach any of those offices.

A Library Evacuated, A Block on Edge

The courthouse sits directly beside the Nashville Public Library's main branch, which police evacuated as a precaution while officers cleared the suspect's car. Patrons said the library gave little explanation at first. "I was watching a movie and they just made an announcement that everyone had to evacuate the building," one patron, identified only as William, told a local television reporter outside the building. The library remained closed for the rest of the day, though police said there was no ongoing threat to it. A nearby public high school was not placed on lockdown, a district spokesperson said, because the situation was resolved within minutes.

Michael Nott, who works near the courthouse and learned of the shooting when his wife called to say she was being evacuated from a nearby building, said the morning left him shaken more by what it represented than by the incident itself.

"There's a lot of angry people out there," Nott said. "Angry people with access to guns."

What Happens Next

Nashville police said the shooting occurred on federal property, meaning federal authorities, not Metro police, will determine how the investigation proceeds, though the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was assisting in gathering facts in the incident's immediate aftermath. The security officer who fired the fatal shot has not been publicly identified, and it remained unclear Thursday whether he was a federal contract guard or a U.S. Marshals Service employee, a distinction that will shape which agency ultimately reviews the shooting. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rob McGuire, whose office occupies space inside the courthouse, told ABC News the episode would be fully reviewed. "Obviously, someone who is armed and brings a firearm into a federal courthouse is not acceptable," McGuire said, adding that authorities intended to "get to the bottom of what happened and then act accordingly." His office, like the Marshals Service and federal probation staff, keeps its daily operations inside the same building where the shooting happened, a proximity that prosecutors and court staff said they had not had to think about in those terms before Thursday.

Court operations at the Fred D. Thompson building were expected to resume on a normal schedule Friday, with security screening unchanged but, according to officials, under heightened watch in the near term. The library next door planned to reopen as well. Beyond Nashville, the shooting is likely to be cited in the judiciary's ongoing case to Congress for more courthouse security funding, a debate that has intensified each year as the Marshals Service's own threat counts have climbed.