7 people killed at 2 Tenn. homes
25-year-old suspect has a history of violence
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Seven people, including a 12-year-old girl, were killed in a string of Sumner County homicides investigators linked to a local man with a history of violence.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation confirmed the increased number of victims Sunday afternoon.
Disturbing details of the crime and the suspect continued to emerge Sunday as the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation scoured two crime scenes in a densely wooded pocket of Sumner County near the Kentucky border.
Reports from the crime scene on Saturday night suggested five had been killed.
The bureau said two additional bodies were found as agents continued their work. Six of the homicide victims were found at one residence and one was at a home about a mile away.
Another victim was injured at the first home and rushed to an area hospital.
Multiple victims were close relatives of Cummins, according to social media posts from family members.
The bureau would not confirm the identities of any victims.
District Attorney Ray Whitley confirmed a young girl was among the dead.
“It’s terrible,” Whitley said in a phone interview.
“About as bad as it can get.” Whitley would not say how any of the victims died. Bureau spokesman Josh DeVine said the bodies had been sent for autopsies Sunday.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation named Michael Cummins, 25, as a suspect and law enforcement took him into custody after a manhunt Saturday night.
Cummins was shot by law enforcement while being captured, but he was in good condition Sunday.
Whitley said criminal charges were being finalized.
In addition to the homicides, he said, there was evidence that Cummins stole a car.
Bureau spokesman Josh DeVine said agents and forensic scientists were still working at both crime scenes.
The crime scenes are in a wooded, rural part of northeastern Sumner County between Westmoreland and Oak Grove communities.
Margie Hatton, who lives near one of the crime scenes on Charles Brown Road, said she had left her home and stayed elsewhere Saturday night, when officers were still looking for Cummins.
“I didn’t want to stay because they couldn’t find him at that time,” Hatton said in a phone interview.
The bureau has not released information about the victims, but the agency said there was reason to believe the two crime scenes were related.
The bureau is working to identify a motive.
Cummins had an extensive criminal record in Sumner County, according to court records confirmed by Sheriff Sonny Weatherford.
He pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated arson and aggravated assault in Sumner County on July 19. A family friend said Cummins had tried to set a neighbor’s home on fire.
Other guilty pleas included domestic assault in August 2017, evading arrest in April 2017, theft in April 2017 and probation violations, Weatherford confirmed.