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Suspect, 18, Arrested In Fatal Sumner Co. Shooting

Resident Killed In Castalian Springs Home Invasion

POSTED: 5:23 am CDT October 30, 2009
UPDATED: 5:50 pm CDT October 30, 2009

The Sumner County Sheriff's Department arrested an 18-year-old man in a fatal home invasion shooting that occurred early Friday morning.

Related: 5 p.m. Report | Noon Report | Morning Report | Images

Police said the home invasion occurred at a home in Castalian Springs along Hilton Lane at about 4:30 a.m.

Dickey Lassiter, 61, a resident of the home, was shot multiple times with a shotgun in the chest and died. Sheriff Bob Barker said officials arrested Tyler Reed, 18, of Gallatin, a student at Volunteer State Community College.

The sheriff said both Lassiter and Reed exchanged several rounds of gunfire, but Reed was not hit.

Barker said Lassiter's roommate was home at the time of the shooting and called 911. A deputy happened to be in the area and quickly took Reed into custody.

Lassiter was well known and generous in the community, said neighbors. It was unclear why the home invasion occurred or if the two men knew each other.

"If you didn't have a dime, he'd give you the last cent in his pocket. That's the way he was. He'd give you anything he had," said Janie Ensley, a friend of Lassiter who cleaned his house for about 10 years.

Lassiter's brother is a football coach at Gallatin High School, and his sister-in-law is local radio disc jockey Mary Glenn Lassister.

Reporters Regina Raccuglia and Jonathan Martin contributed to this story.

Below is raw aerial video of the home where the shooting occurred:


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