Suspect's friends, family shocked by Tennessee shooting
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}July 7, 2016: A weapon lays on the ground next to evidence markers in Bristol, Tenn. Three people were injured and one person was killed after a man opened fire on motorists traveling along a parkway in East Tennessee. (David Crigger/The Bristol Herald-Courier via AP)
Friends and family of a black Army veteran accused of shooting at passing cars and police on a Tennessee highway are struggling to accept that he became violent in response to police killings of African-Americans.
One woman died and three others were wounded, including an officer, as police traded gunfire with the suspect early Thursday.
Thirty-seven-year-old Lakeem Keon Scott survived his wounds, and after questioning him on Friday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said he cited police killings of black men as his motivation.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Alan Lavasser, a white neighbor, says Scott was nice to "everyone," and there's "no way I would ever believe that it was racially motivated."