VA to honor worker who aided pastor hurt in Nashville church shooting

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will honor one of its medical workers who helped tend to a minister’s injuries from a Tennessee church shooting in September.

A department news release says the ceremony for Tennessee Valley Healthcare System medical technologist Minerva Rosa-Gonzalez will be held Nov. 20 at the Nashville VA Medical Center.

The department says Rosa-Gonzalez used her body to put pressure on minister Joey Spann’s wounds to stop the bleeding in Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Nashville.

State and federal veterans affairs officials will be on hand to commemorate Rosa-Gonzalez’s actions.

Authorities have charged 25-year-old Emanuel Kidega Samson with fatally shooting a woman and wounding six others at the chapel on Sept. 24.