Teen on Probation Arrested for Shooting from a Car with MNPD Helicopter Overhead

Violent Crimes detectives tonight are charging Nelson Garcia-Arevalo, 17, with two counts of felony reckless endangerment for firing a rifle from the driver’s window of a stolen Hyundai Elantra as an MNPD helicopter with two crew members on board monitored the vehicle from above.

Even more troubling is the fact that Garcia-Arevalo was arrested as a 16-year-old last September for firing a gun at an undercover detective and then a police helicopter. The case was transferred from Juvenile to Criminal Court. He was convicted of felony aggravated assault in February 2025 and given a three-year probated sentence. Since Garcia-Arevalo has already been adjudicated as an adult, the charges being placed against him tonight, which also include vehicle theft and felony evading arrest, will be filed in adult court. Two 15-year-olds in the car with him are being charged with vehicle theft, unlawful gun possession and evading arrest at juvenile court.

These arrests are the result of a joint investigation between MNPD Violent Crimes detectives, ATF agents, and Dickson detectives who have been working together to identify the persons responsible for the theft of firearms from a Dickson gun store early Thursday. The same black Hyundai Elantra that Garcia-Arevalo was driving today was used in the Dickson gun store case. The car was stolen from the Madison area shortly before the burglary.

A rifle and four pistols taken in the burglary were recovered today during the arrests of Garcia-Arevalo and the two 15-year-olds. Multiple other guns taken in the burglary were recovered from a wooded area adjacent to an Edmondson Pike apartment complex.

An MNPD helicopter monitored the vehicle’s movements for more than an hour today, during which undercover detectives used a spike strip to deflate the tires as it pulled out of the Edmondson Pike apartment complex. Garcia-Arevalo drove the car on flattened tires for another five minutes before he and the two 15-year-olds bailed out on Amalie Drive and ran into a neighborhood. Detectives saturated the area and arrested all three.

The Dickson Police Department will be placing charges in regard to the gun store burglary and theft.