After analyzing a thick stack of documents, a small collection of photos, the 911 call, and nearly an hour of video footage, we have more questions than ever about what happened to 18-year-old Grant Solomon at a baseball practice facility in Gallatin, Tennessee.
Grant died on July 20, 2020, after he was reportedly dragged across a parking lot by his own truck. His father, Aaron Solomon was reportedly the only witness.
Aaron called 911 at 8:44 a.m. to ask for help, and it sounds as if he’s talking to different people throughout the call. In fact, at one point, he tells the dispatcher he has three people there helping him.
“I got three guys here, and he’s trapped under the truck,” Aaron told the dispatcher around the 1:17 mark in the call.
Throughout the call, Aaron is heard speaking to someone apparently at the scene, and occasionally, voices can be heard in the background. Near the end of the call as sirens can be heard approaching the scene, Aaron is still referring to “we” as he speaks to someone.
At 8:50 a.m., when the first paramedic got to Grant’s side, and he could tell the young man was gravely injured. That paramedic later noted in his report that Grant was “underneath the front of the truck between the two front tires, however, the weight of the vehicle was supported by the wheels and was not being exerted upon the patient.”
Still, despite the efforts of emergency medical personnel and the staff at Sumner Regional Medical Center, Grant was pronounced dead at 9:28 a.m. before his mother, Angie Solomon, could get from her home in Franklin to the hospital in Gallatin.
The week after Grant’s death was a grief-filled haze for Angie as she waded through planning her only son’s funeral while caring for her daughter, Gracie, and attending to the tasks that come with the death of someone gone too soon. There was a prayer vigil the evening of July 20, followed by funeral planning and prepping for a July 24 visitation and then the funeral and burial on July 25.
But then, on July 27, Angie was desperate for more answers. On the 27th, Aaron allowed Angie and her best friend, Melanie Hicks — who Angie calls Mel — to come and see the truck, which he had picked up from the tow yard and allegedly drove it to his home in Franklin on July 22.
At this point, Angie hadn’t yet seen any of the reports from first responders and had to go solely on Aaron’s word. His word that day was that he called 911 “immediately” and that “people” had told him he should sit down because of the emotional shock of the incident.
What people, though? Are these the three guys Aaron referenced on the 911 call? If they were there as Aaron was calling 911 and telling him to sit down, then they had to have been witnesses to the accident, right? And if they are witnesses, where did they go before first responders arrived, and why haven’t they ever come forward to tell authorities what they saw?
The following day, July 28, Angie and Mel met Aaron and his best friend, Sam Johnson, in Gallatin at the scene of Grant’s crash. That day, Aaron told Angie that there had been “three, four, five” people telling him he should sit down.
The official reports, however, tell a different story. Gallatin Police Officer Kurtis McKelvey wrote in his report that he didn’t find any witnesses.
Highlight added for clarity.
Another officer at the scene, Michael Shore, wrote in his report that he collected witness statements.
Highlight added for clarity.
Lunashark has the file that Angie’s private investigator obtained from the Gallatin Police Department via an open records request. There are no witness statements included other than Aaron’s written statement.
We don’t know what to make of the fact that the officers on the scene say different things about whether or not there were witnesses. We also don’t know what to make of the fact that Aaron says repeatedly that there were other people there, but a first responder we spoke with said Grant was alone when they arrived.
In summary, True Sunlight creator and co-host Mandy Matney said it best at the end of True Sunlight Episode 14:
When we’re looking for the “how” and the “why” of someone’s untimely death, it shouldn’t be this difficult. It should be simple and straightforward and supported by the evidence.
But it’s not.
And that’s why we know it’s time to dig further.
Contact Beth Braden
Beth Braden
Beth Braden is an award-winning journalist with experience covering government, education and crime and courts for more than 10 years. In addition to following breaking news and writing feature stories about life in her home state of Tennessee, her by-line appears on several internationally known websites.
Beth is passionate about communicating complex information in an easy-to-understand manner and she loves to pore over public records and court documents as she seeks out patterns and context to share with her audience. In her spare time, she enjoys quilting, strange museums, and good cups of coffee.
Please sign into your Premium account then refresh this page to view this content.