Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch said one of their cadets shot three people in North Knoxville late Friday night. Two people, including the cadet, are dead and two others are injured.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to their family. This is a tragic, tragic incident,” Chief Rausch told the media Friday night.

Knoxville police received the shooting call at 11:30 p.m. at 5206 Inskip Road.

Chief Rausch said the 21-year-old cadet started the gun fight. He said the cadet went to the home to see his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend.

“We understand initially it didn’t sound like any kind of confrontation. Then, as he was leaving, he confronted a family-friend,” Chief Rausch said.

He said the cadet then shot the 28-year-old “family-friend.” The victim died at the scene.

The cadet also shot his ex-girlfriend and her mother. They were both taken to UT for non-life threatening injures.

The son and brother of the two women lived at the home and heard it all happening.

“He went and retrieved a firearm to defend his family and shot the cadet multiple times,” he said.

The cadet also died on the scene.

No names have been released.

A cadet is a civilian employee of the department under 21 years old. Cadets are not sworn officers.

Cadets work in different capacities such as doing paperwork, answering the phones, writing parking citations and assisting officers with various tasks. They cannot make arrests or take any law enforcement action. They are not issued weapons. It’s a program for young people to get an idea if law enforcement is a career they may be interested in prior to applying for a position.