Nashville East Precinct detectives Friday night arrested Rapheal Gooch, 16, for two violent gun crimes, including last Saturday’s shooting of a 58-year-old woman in her car after trying to stop her near the intersection of Bronte and Litton Avenues.
Gooch is alleged to have been in a carjacked Toyota Camry taken the day before (Friday, July 23) in South Nashville when he saw the victim in her Lexus last Saturday afternoon at a Gallatin Pike fast food restaurant. The Toyota followed the victim onto Leland Avenue and then onto Bronte Avenue. The Toyota sped past the victim’s Lexus and stopped near the intersection of Bronte and Litton Avenues. One person, alleged to have been Gooch, stood in front of the victim’s car and pulled a pistol from his waistband. She drove past him, resulting in a shot being fired into her vehicle. The victim continued to a nearby East Nashville business from where police were called. She is continuing to recover.
In the carjacking case on July 23, two women were preparing to leave their apartment complex on Whispering Oaks Place in the 2013 Toyota Camry when a gunman, alleged to have been Gooch, put his pistol to the head of the driver and demanded that the victims get out of the car and leave the keys. He jumped in and drove off.
Gooch is charged in Juvenile Court with especially aggravated robbery in the shooting case, as well as aggravated robbery and aggravated assault in the carjacking case.
Also being charged with vehicle theft in relation to the Toyota is Gooch’s brother, Deontaye Gooch-Blacksmith, 18, who, the investigation shows, drove the car to the Dickerson Pike Wal-Mart on July 23, and, accompanied by Rapheal, purchased window tint. On the night of July 24, Gooch-Blacksmith was observed driving the car to Overlook Apartments on Buena Vista Pike from where it was recovered on July 27.
Diligent investigative work by East Precinct Detective Keiara Ward led to charges against the two brothers.
In a separate case, Gooch-Blacksmith was charged with aggravated robbery last Tuesday for pointing a gun at a realtor on Porter Terrace July 20, demanding the keys to his Toyota SUV, and driving off in it (the vehicle has since been recovered). He is being held in lieu of $90,000 bond in that case.
Gooch-Blacksmith was charged in three other aggravated robbery cases in recent years, one in 2018 and two in 2019.
MNPD
