Cops report man screaming about ‘Hellish demon’ during Tennessee murder rampage

Background: 3000 Block of Somerset Lane in Columbia, Tennessee (Google Maps) Inset: Byron Childers (Maury County Sheriff’s Department)

A suburban Tennessee neighborhood faced turmoil recently as a man tragically took the lives of two neighbors and harmed multiple others, as per police reports.

Details surrounding the potential reasons behind the actions of the accused individual, 46-year-old Byron Dean Childers, remain unclear. However, accounts from witnesses shed light on the chaos that unfolded during the incident.

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Upon responding to reports of a shooting, the Columbia Police Department dispatched its officers to the 3000 block of Somerset Lane last Saturday around 3 p.m. Upon arrival, law enforcement discovered three individuals had sustained gunshot wounds.

Childers is accused of walking up to John Bidle, 46, who was standing in front of a house on the block, and shooting him. The suspect proceeded to stand over him and shoot several more times, while shouting how it was “safe” because he got the “demon from Hell,” according to an arrest affidavit obtained by WSMV.

The suspect was reportedly a resident of the community and a neighbor of Bidle’s.

Stacie Wright, who reportedly lived just across the street from Bidle, opened her door to see what the noises were before Childers shot her several times, the affidavit continued, adding that Bidle’s wife, Amy, saw her husband lying down in the street covered in blood and ran to help him.

Childers is said to have grabbed her and dragged her away, scraping her limbs on the asphalt before taking her by the neck, shoving a vape pen down her throat, punching her in the face, and telling her to “calm down.”

An ice cream truck on the street driven by Mandu Johnson, 47, was allegedly the next target of Childers’ ire, as the suspect is said to have fired several shots and hit Johnson in the hip. Witnesses said Childers proceeded to punch and try to carjack an off-duty Metro Nashville Police Department officer named Jason Lyons, another neighbor, but Lyons stopped him. Childers ran away and was later arrested by Columbia police officers.

Police pronounced John Bidle dead at the scene. Wright was brought to a nearby hospital, where she later died during surgery. Amy Bidle and Johnson were treated for their wounds.

“I lost my best friend, my partner, my forever person, the father of my child,” Amy Bidle said, per NewsChannel 5. She also remembered Wright as “always bright, smiling and friendly.”