NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Metro Nashville Police Department released body camera video showing a SWAT officer fatally shooting a suspect wielding a sword, according to the department.
The Aug. 29 incident began when officers were dispatched to a gas station after a reported dispute between the suspect and a clerk. The suspect reportedly left the store after an argument over payment for coffee and returned with the sword.
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The man yelled at the clerk to “come outside now, I’ll kill you.”
Officers then issue an aggravated felony assault warrant for the suspect, in addition to existing outstanding warrants, police said.
About an hour after the gas station response, the department received a call from the suspect’s family members, warning that he may become a danger to others and that he was still armed with a sword.
Officers then located the suspect’s vehicle via the department’s air unit. Officers on the ground stopped the car.
The suspect then exited the vehicle with the sword and began yelling at officers. Officers discovered that a woman inside the car was being held there against her will, according to police.
Officers spoke with the man for more than an hour in an effort to persuade him to surrender. After the suspect continued to refuse to drop the sword, SWAT was called to the scene.
Body camera footage from a SWAT officer shows the man holding the sword before an officer fired three shots, striking the man.
The man was transported to a hospital, where he died. The woman was not injured.
The SWAT officer has been “decommissioned and relieved of all police authority while the TBI investigates the shooting on behalf of District Attorney General Glenn Funk,” the department stated in a press release.
