Video shows man firing gun before Nashville police officers fatally shoot him
Metro Nashville Police officers shot and killed a man in Madison Saturday morning.
The shooting occurred at the scene of an earlier, nonfatal shooting that did not involve police.
Madison precinct officers responded to that shooting at Maple Street off Gallatin Pike around 2 a.m. and blocked off the scene. They were interviewing witnesses and collecting bullet casings a half hour later when, according to MNPD spokesperson Kris Mumford, a man walked under the crime scene tape and fired toward the officers. On Sunday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation identified the man as Senquarius Demonta Williams, 26.
Three officers returned fire, striking and killing Williams.
Watch: MNPD releases bodycam footage after officers fatally shoot man
Editor's note: This video contains graphic content and may not be suitable for sensitive viewers.
Edited video footage of the incident released by Nashville police around 11 a.m. Saturday shows a man approaching and walking under crime scene tape toward an officer as the officer asks him to take his hands out of his pockets. Footage from another angle shows an officer backpedaling as Williams advances toward him. Williams can be seen raising a gun and firing several shots before appearing to be hit by return fire and collapsing.
Three officers from the Madison Precinct fired their weapons, according to police:
- Sgt. John Timm, 15-year MNPD veteran
- Sgt. Leonard Spadavecchia, 8-year MNPD veteran
- Officer John Robish, 2-year MNPD veteran
None of the officers were injured. Williams died at the scene. It is not known whether he was connected with the earlier shooting.
A 32-year-old man injured in the earlier shooting was taken to Vanderbilt and has not provided any information, Mumford said.
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The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will lead the investigation of the shooting by police under an agreement in place with the city since 2017, in collaboration with the Davidson County District Attorney's Office.
"The TBI acts as fact-finders in its cases and does not determine whether the actions of an officer were justified in these types of matters," the agency wrote in a statement Saturday. "That decision rests with the district attorney general requesting the TBI's involvement."
Metro Nashville Police Department is conducting its own administrative review of the shooting per department policy.
A short stretch of Maple Street was blocked off from Gallatin Pike to Brawner Avenue on Saturday morning.
Metro Nashville Community Oversight investigators also headed to the scene Saturday morning.
This marks the third shooting by MNPD officers this year. Landon Eastep, 37, died after he was shot at by nine officers from three different agencies Jan. 27 on Interstate 65. Two MNPD officers shot Randy Charles Levi, 40, inside a downtown liquor store June 2. Levi survived and faces homicide charges in the shooting earlier that day of a security guard outside the store.