Nashville officer fatally shoots sword-wielding man, relieved of duty
A Metro Nashville police officer shot and killed a 54-year-old man armed with a sword on Cheshire Drive. The officer has been decommissioned pending investigation.
Nashville officer shoots and kills sword-wielding man after hour-long standoff
Google News MT — Crime (en) reports that a Metro Nashville Police Department officer has been stripped of all police authority after fatally shooting a man armed with a sword on Cheshire Drive on Saturday morning.
Officer Joshua Baney, a 12-year MNPD veteran, fired three times at 54-year-old Jason William Sexton at approximately 11:25 a.m. Body camera footage released by MNPD on Saturday night shows the moment of the shooting. Sexton was transported to hospital, where he died from his injuries.
The incident began hours earlier
The sequence of events started at 8 a.m. when officers were dispatched to a Shell petrol station at 2112 Charlotte Avenue. A clerk reported a dispute with Sexton over payment for coffee. According to MNPD, Sexton drove away but returned shortly after carrying a full-size sword, shouting "Come outside now, I'll kill you" at the clerk.
A felony aggravated assault warrant was issued for Sexton, alongside existing outstanding warrants for order of protection violations and criminal trespassing.
Roughly an hour later, a relative of Sexton called 911, telling dispatchers the family considered him a danger to others. The caller cited Instagram videos Sexton had recently posted showing him displaying the sword.
Aerial surveillance and ground standoff
A police helicopter located Sexton's Hyundai sedan at a carwash on Dickerson Pike and tracked him from the air as he travelled onto Bell Grimes Lane and then turned onto Cheshire Drive, where ground units brought him to a stop.
Sexton stepped out of the vehicle holding the sword while a 26-year-old woman remained inside the car. MNPD said he immediately began shouting at officers. Police spoke with him on and off for over an hour in an attempt to secure his surrender. During that time, the woman in the vehicle told officers she was being held against her will; she was not injured.
SWAT officers responded to the scene and began developing a plan to resolve the standoff.
The fatal shots
Baney had initially been directed to help block Sexton's vehicle with his police truck. After positioning himself at the rear of a patrol vehicle, he fired on Sexton three times as Sexton advanced while still holding the sword.
MNPD noted that officers had already attempted to arrest Sexton on Friday on his outstanding warrants. He had sped away from police on Murfreesboro Pike around noon that day and escaped capture.
Investigations and administrative action
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is leading the inquiry into the shooting. MNPD is simultaneously conducting a separate administrative investigation into the officer-involved shooting.
Metro Police Chief John Drake directed that Baney be "decommissioned and relieved of all police authority" while both investigations proceed.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)