Austin Dill was 19 and from Portland, Tennessee. Family remembered him as warm, generous, and social—someone who loved cars, especially his Camaro, and who made others feel valued. On the evening of February 22, 2025, he was shot once in the midsection at a home on Founders Lane and was airlifted to TriStar Skyline Medical Center, where he received multiple blood transfusions but died the next morning, February 23, 2025.

Witnesses at the scene initially told police Austin had accidentally shot himself, but the Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide. Three witnesses later gave statements to detectives saying another person at the home fired the fatal shot. Authorities arrested 20-year-old Trevor Ethan Choate and charged him with reckless homicide; he was booked into the Sumner County jail. Prosecutors presented evidence at a July 2026 trial that Choate had repeatedly handled firearms recklessly in the weeks before the shooting, and a jury found him guilty of reckless homicide on July 15, 2026.

The community held fundraisers, blood drives and a car show in Austin’s memory, and a GoFundMe raised over $19,000 for medical and funeral expenses. Does anyone have information about the February 22, 2025 shooting or knew Austin and can share details that might help the record?