Days after a 30-year-old woman was shot and killed in the parking lot of an East Nashville bar, her family and friends, are opening up on the kind of person she was and how they want her remembered.
Jaime Sarrantonio and Bartley “Brandon” Teal around 3:30 a.m. Friday in the parking lot of The Cobra on Gallatin Avenue.
Detectives believe the gunmen were randomly looking for robbery victims and targeted Jaime and Brandon when they returned to the bar’s parking lot after walking to a nearby convenience store for snacks.
Metro police spokesman Don Aaron has since called their deaths, “two senseless cold-blooded homicides.”
News 2’s sister station, WTNH in New Haven, Connecticut, spoke to Jaime’s family and friends on Monday evening.
They described Jaime as “bright, larger than life and very smart.”
The family said she moved to Nashville to study at Vanderbilt University and that she was pursuing a career in music.
Jaime’s mother said her daughter was shot in the stomach and she received a phone call early Friday morning from a surgeon telling her there was nothing more he could do to save Jaime.
“I said, ‘Who is this?’ I just kept saying that, and he said, ‘Well, I have to tell you. I have your daughter. She has been shot.’ I said, ‘Is she ok?’” Robin Fisher recalled.
Jaime’s sister, Jolie Sarrantonio, said she last spoke to her a few hours before she was killed. She said the text messages focused on them getting together soon at their home in Westbrook, Connecticut.
“She was just everyone’s best friend and I want everyone to remember her that way,” Jolie said.
Friends and family also said Jaime was known for her dancing, her smile, her laugh and positive attitude.
“What a kind person she was, and how much she loved everybody. She tried to make everybody feel comfortable and welcome, and in her presence, she tried to make them feel comfortable with themselves,” her best friend, Jessica McBride said.
A Celebration of Life service will be held for Jaime on Tuesday at Sinema at 4 p.m.
Brandon Teal’s funeral will be held on Tuesday at the Cole and Garrett Funeral Home in White House.
On Monday afternoon, Metro police announced two men wanted for questioning had been taken into custody.
