Yoel Sarmiento Lopez was 21 when he was shot and killed in Nashville on July 24, 2023. He was seated in the driver’s seat of a parked Nissan Altima near Sterling Boone Drive and Jay Street around 1:30 a.m., listening to music with his cousin and another person. A single gunshot came from inside the vehicle after an AR-style pistol was being handled in the back seat; Lopez was struck.

After the shot, the person handling the firearm, 18-year-old Josué Emanuel Cruz, fled on foot. Lopez’s cousin moved him into the rear of the car and drove to a nearby 7-Eleven on Nolensville Pike to seek help. Emergency services arrived but Lopez died of his injuries. Detectives found Cruz later that morning outside a Nolensville Pike business; he was taken into custody on a criminal homicide warrant and declined to give a statement. Cruz was charged with criminal homicide. Funeral services were held July 28, 2023, and Lopez was interred in Smyrna.

If anyone was near Sterling Boone Drive and Jay Street that morning or has information about the events in the car, please come forward.