On January 27, 2022, Metropolitan Nashville Police Department released body camera footage that shows the tense moments that led to nine officers opening fire on a man on a Tennessee highway.

This incident began after a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer came upon a 37 year-old man sitting on a guardrail along the busy Interstate 65. The trooper approached the man to offer him a ride home and to get him off the highway. During that time, the man pulled a box cutter on the trooper, resulting in him calling for backup.

Before backup arrived, an off-duty officer who was on his way home, stopped to assist the trooper. As back up officers arrived, the man suddenly pulled an unidentified “shiny, silver cylindrical object” out of his pocket. The officers attempted to de-escalate the situation for approximately 30 minutes, but the man refused to comply.

One of the officers promised the man several times that he would not go to jail and insisted that he only wanted to help him. Eventually, the man reached into his pocket and then took a stance compatible with preparing to shoot a gun. At that point, 9 officers opened fire, killing the man. Posted by JR