A Tennessee high school student was shot and killed Thursday waiting for the bus to school.

The victim was Johnathan Johnson, 17. His brother told NBC affiliate WSMV in Nashville that he was a good student and basketball player who loved the Boston Celtics.

Police told WSMV that they were seeking a suspect, Eric L. Goodner, also 17. Witnesses told the station that the suspect waited for Johnson on some steps leading to a vacant lot, then walked up to him at the bus stop and shot him.

Both were enrolled at Pearl-Cohn High School in Nashville, but Goodner has not attended since mid-February, WSMV reported. The principal, Sonia Stewart, said that Johnson was friendly and had a bright future.

This story was originally published on Thu Apr 11, 2013 9:22 AM EDT

The chief executive of a Tennessee firearms instruction school, who said in an online video that he was “going to start killing people” if gun control laws were tightened, could get his carry permit back.

A judge in Benton County ruled on April 3 that the suspension of James Yeager’s handgun carry permit was not supported by the evidence against him.

Yeager lost his handgun carry permit on Jan. 10 after posting a video on Youtube in which he threatened violent action if President Obama pursued executive actions that would tighten restrictions on gun ownership. His original video was later replaced with an edited version that omits the remarks about “killing people.”

“I need all you patriots to start thinking about what you’re going to do, load your damn mags, make sure your rifle’s clean, pack a backpack with some food in it, and get ready to fight,” Yeager said in the original Jan. 9 video, now archived on the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center. “If it goes one inch further, I’m going to start killing people.”

A more sedate Yeager, seated alongside his attorney, tempered his statements in a video posted days later, on Jan. 11.

“I do not in any way advocate the overthrowing of the United States government,” Yeager said. “I was very angry when I made that video.”

Yeager filed a petition to have his handgun permit returned on Feb. 1.

There are 412,465 handgun permit holders in Tennessee, according to the state department of safety. A total of 1,389 permits were suspended or revoked in 2012.

The state attorney general has 10 days to appeal the Benton County court’s ruling. No decision to appeal had been made on Tuesday.

Based in Camden, Tenn., Yeager’s company, Tactical Response, offers courses in pistol, rifle, and shotgun shooting, including a two-day handgun course taught by him.

Some of Yeager’s own qualifications as a gun instructor have come into question since his Youtube video. The man, who has appeared on the Discovery Channel show “One Man Army” and National Geographic’s “Snipers, Inc.,” claims in his biography on his personal website Yeager’s Corner that he is a “TN Department of Safety Certified Firearms Instructor,” among other credentials including “knife defense instructor” and “chemical weapons instructor.”

But Yeager is not a certified as a firearms instructor by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, Communications Director Jennifer Donnals said in an email. “Also, Tactical Response is not a certified school for this department,” Donnals said.

“What is listed on my website is my training history, and it is a catalog of all the certifications and qualifications I’ve had at one point in time,” Yeager told NBC News on Tuesday. “I am not currently certified by the state of Tennessee to teach carry permit classes, but I have been in the past.”

Yeager’s website also details years working in law enforcement and as a private security contractor. He worked as chief of police in the town of Big Sandy, Tenn., from 1998 to 2000, and a deputy at the Benton County sheriff’s office from 2000 to 2002, according to the site. He also served with a private security detail in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 with Edinburgh Risk and Security Management.

Yeager lost the position of police chief in Big Sandy after a new mayor was elected, said city recorder Debbie Wright, who described Yeager as “very ambitious” for the town with a population of 539.

“He did a very extensive volunteer program, a ride-along type program, and a few people had problems with that,” Wright said.

When a new mayor came in, Yeager was out, according to Wright.

“They had different ideas about how the police department should be run,” Wright said.

Yeager ran for Benton County sheriff in 2006 against Tony King, who still holds office in the county with 16,500 people.

King said he received an email from the Department of Homeland Security informing him that Yeager’s permit had been revoked. Yeager’s video “probably drew more attention than he thought it would,” King said. “I think probably he let his temper get carried away with him.”

Yeager has backed off his initial statements, saying he is not planning on shooting anyone in a January interview – but he has also made it clear that he thinks that violence would be appropriate to protect certain 2nd Amendment rights.

“It will be time to shoot people when the Constitution is set on fire,” Yeager told local NBC affiliate WSMV in January. “If somebody comes to take my guns, I will shoot them.”

Four-year-old boys in different states were involved in two separate shooting incidents in the last four days, with tragic results.

On Saturday, a Tennessee boy discharged a pistol at a sheriff's deputy's wife, killing her instantly. On Monday, a New Jersey toddler killed a 6-year-old neighbor after a rifle was fired at his head.

The Tennessee incident occurred during a family cookout at the home of Josephine and Daniel Fanning. He's a sheriff's deputy in Wilson County.

Deputy Fanning, 51, was in his bedroom showing his collection of weapons to a relative around 7:00 p.m. Saturday, when Josephine, 48, and the 4-year-old came into the room. The young boy grabbed a loaded handgun sitting on the bed and fired it once, striking and killing the deputy’s wife, according to Tennessee Bureau of Investigations spokeswoman Kristin Helm. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The incident appears to be an accident and no one has been charged, but the investigation is still open, according to Helm.

“It’s a sad, sad set of circumstances,” Sheriff Robert Bryan told NBC affiliate WSMV in Nashville. "Nobody is immune to this. Nobody. It doesn't matter if you are a law enforcement officer. These things can happen in second."

The 4-year-old is a relative of the deputy and his late wife, WSMV reported. The weapon used by the 4-year-old boy was not Deputy Fanning’s service weapon.

Another tragic incident took place in New Jersey on Monday evening, when a 4-year-old boy accidentally shot a 6-year-old neighbor with a rifle he found in his parents’ home.

Police said the two boys were playing with a .22-caliber rifle outside the 4-year-old’s home in Toms River, N.J., when around 7:00 p.m. the gun discharged and struck the 6-year-old in the head, NBCNewYork.com reported.

The 4-year-old's parents reportedly heard the shot and called 911.

According to NBCNewYork.com, the 6-year-old was taken to Jersey Shore Medical Center, where he later died. An investigation is ongoing.

The body of a student pilot who was ejected from a small aircraft above an area east of Chattanooga, Tenn., in a freak accident Friday evening was found on Saturday, authorities said.

The man’s body was located after 8 a.m. local time, Bob Gault, a spokesman for the Bradley County Sheriff’s department, told NBC News.

The accident occurred when the owner of the Zodiac 601XL plane was taking lessons from an instructor, NBC station WRCB of Chattanooga reported, citing police. A malfunction caused the plane to nose dive and the canopy flew open – and neither man was wearing a seat belt, WRCB reported.

The accident occurred at about 2,500 feet, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported. 

The instructor was able to land the aircraft back at Collegedale Municipal Airport, operations manager Chris Hancock confirmed to NBC News. He directed further questions to a Collegedale police spokesman who could not immediately be reached.

“The people inside the plane were not wearing seat belts,” said Troy Spence, director of the county’s emergency management agency, according to WRCB. “So when they lost control of the plane, in an attempt to regain control of the plane, the passenger was ejected.”

Authorities conducted a ground search in Bradley County, WRCB said. The Times Free Press said the owner-pilot had a cell phone with him and rescuers pinged it in an attempt to find him.

Neither of the men was identified publicly by authorities.

WRCB said the plane had been owned by a man killed in a December crash and then was sold to the current owner, described as an experienced pilot who wanted more training in the Zodiac.

The Zodiac 601XL is a single-engine kit aircraft offered for home builders. Its two seats are side by side under a large domed canopy.

This story was originally published on Fri Mar 29, 2013 9:18 PM EDT

A 10-month-old boy was shot and killed by his father Thursday in an apparent accident at a Nashville, Tenn., hotel, local media reported.

Two police detectives from the Hermitage Precinct were close to the hotel when the call went out and made it to the scene within about three minutes but were unable to resuscitate the child, NBC affiliate WSMV-TV Channel 4 reported.

The child's mother Jacquelin Bass, 28, and the couple's other sons, aged 3 and 2, were in the room when the gun went off, the station said.

The baby was shot once in the chest as his father, Larry Bass, 30, handled the semi-automatic handgun, the Nashville Tennessean reported.

NBC News was unable to independently confirm the accounts early Friday.

Both news outlets reported that the family, from Texas, was at the Extended Stay America hotel near Nashville International Airport when the incident happened. Larry Bass was in town to work on construction of the Music City Center, a 1.2-million-square foot convention center.

The newspaper said the family had checked in on Jan. 29.

Ten-month-old Adam Bass would have had turned 1 in May, the Tennessean reported, quoting police spokesman Don Aaron as saying that the family was "very, very distraught over what's happened" and that "the police department does not believe this was an intentional act."

Attempts to reach the police department were unsuccessful early Friday. WSMV said a police investigation was continuing.

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A winter storm will spread both snow and rain across the South and into the Mid-Atlantic Thursday into Thursday night.

A strong area of low-pressure will move through the Deep South Thursday and head into the Atlantic Ocean by early Friday.

Ahead of this system, heavy rain and flooding will be a concern in parts of the Appalachians and Southeast.

Read more from weather.com

Rain is expected to change to snow and sleet Thursday morning through Thursday evening in areas from parts of Mississippi, northern Alabama, northern Georgia and eastern Tennessee to the Southern Appalachians, northern North Carolina and Virginia.

Rogelio V. Solis / AP

A Mississippi Department of Transportation employee checks ice on this bridge in Flowood, Miss., Thursday morning.

The heaviest accumulations of snow -- 6 inches or more – were expected in the higher elevations of the Southern Appalachians.

Parts of Mississippi, northern Alabama and northern Georgia could see anything from a dusting to a few inches.

To the east of the Appalachians, 1 to 4 inches of snow with locally higher amounts possible could hit from northern North Carolina to parts of central/eastern Virginia and southern Maryland.

Some accumulating snow is possible as far north as the Washington, D.C. and Dover, Del. metro areas, which could affect the afternoon and evening commute.

This is roughly the northern fringe of potential accumulations in this region and exact amounts will be dependent on how much moisture reaches this far north.

The southern fringe of possible snow accumulations may reach as far south as Raleigh, N.C. and Greensboro, N.C.

If D.C. can officially record more than two inches of snow, it would exceed the entire total from all of last season. So far this season, only two tenths of an inch of snow has been measured.

Though snowfall with this system will be of short duration, it could also be heavy at times. Given that temperatures have been mild recently, the best chance for accumulations in the lower elevations outside the Appalachians will be on grassy and elevated surfaces. That said, heavier snowfall rates could lead to accumulations on road surfaces as well.

As the storm shifts out to sea on Thursday night, it may move close enough to the Northeast coast to bring some snow to parts of the southern New Jersey coast, eastern Long Island and far southeastern New England.