Latest Updates: Metro Officer Andrew Delke On Trial For Murder In Daniel Hambrick Shooting

The first Metro police officer to see jail time for fatally shooting someone while on duty is now out of custody. Andrew Delke was released Thursday after serving 18 months for killing 25-year-old Daniel Hambrick. During a 2018 foot chase, Delke, who is white, shot Hambrick, who was Black, in the back.

Delke was supposed to stand trial for the shooting last summer. The night before the trial, he accepted a plea deal for a minimum sentence of three years in jail.

More: What happened inside the courtroom and out as Nashville officer took a plea deal

However, Delke will no longer serve that time because of jail rules. The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office allows inmates without infractions to take time off their sentence.

Hambrick’s mother, Vickie, has called Delke’s plea agreement “unfair, secretive and racist.” She says her family did not know about the deal on the first day of Delke’s would-be trial last summer. Before the judge accepted the plea agreement, Delke would have made history as the first MNPD officer to face trial on first-degree murder charges for an on-duty shooting. If he’d been convicted, he could’ve spent the rest of his life in prison.

Although Delke did get time off for good behavior, he had waived his right to parole earlier this year. At the time, Delke’s defense attorney, David Raybin, said the former officer agreed to forego parole as part of the plea agreement.

Hambrick’s mother, however, has said Delke’s sentence was unfair and her son, Daniel, would’ve gotten the maximum had the roles of the situation been reversed.

“Y’all would have thrown away the key on a Black man,” Vickie Hambrick said at the parole board meeting.

WPLN News took a closer look at Delke’s case in the podcast Deadly Force.

A former Nashville police officer who pleaded guilty to manslaughter last summer has turned down his first chance at early release.

Andrew Delke was scheduled to have a parole hearing Monday morning. Instead, he told officials he would waive his right to parole and stay behind bars to keep serving his three-year sentence.

Delke’s defense attorney, David Raybin, says the former officer agreed to forego parole as part of the plea agreement.

Delke was supposed to stand trial for first-degree murder this past summer, for shooting Daniel Hambrick during a 2018 foot chase. Hambrick was Black and Delke is white. If he had been convicted, he could have spent the rest of his life in prison.

More: Learn more about the case in WPLN’s podcast, Deadly Force.

But just days before jury selection was supposed to start, Delke resigned from the police department and signed a plea deal. He agreed to serve a three-year sentence at the local jail.

The parole hearing was a mere formality, required by law, and Delke had indicated to the board in advance that he did not want to be considered for it.

But even without being granted parole, Delke could still leave jail early.

The rules at the jail allow people who behave well to get time off their sentence. The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office uses a formula that takes a certain number of days off a sentence for each day served without an infraction.

State-run prisons in Tennessee also give credit for good behavior to shorten people’s sentences. However, Raybin says DCSO gives more time off than state facilities.

That means Delke could go home after about a year and a half in jail.

“I haven’t put a pencil to it,” Raybin says. “But it’ll be toward the end of this year.”

Hambrick’s family expresses disappointment

At Monday’s meeting with the parole board, Daniel Hambrick’s mother expressed frustration that the man who killed her son could go home after such a short stint behind bars.

“I don’t think that’s fair,” Vickie Hambrick said. “Not at all.”

The family’s attorney, Joy Kimbrough, said Hambrick was also upset that she had not been kept in the loop about developments in the case, including the parole hearing. Kimbrough said someone who had been following the case notified her — not an official.

The Hambrick family was also left in the dark when prosecutors offered Delke a plea deal in July. The district attorney did not inform them until after the defense team had agreed to the terms.

The deal bumped down Delke’s charge from first-degree murder, the most serious type of homicide in the state of Tennessee, to voluntary manslaughter. Prosecutors also agreed to let him serve the minimum possible sentence.

Delke shot Hambrick in the back in 2018 while he ran away with a gun in his hand. The former officer told state investigators that he pulled the trigger because he was afraid that Hambrick was going to shoot him. He also said that Hambrick had pointed a gun in his direction.

Surveillance footage that captured the shooting, as well as the moments leading up to it, never show Hambrick’s gun aimed at Delke. Video of about two seconds of the chase were never recovered.

Delke is the first Nashville police officer to serve time for shooting someone in the line of duty. Law enforcement officials are rarely charged for on-duty shootings, because they are allowed to shoot in self-defense if they believe their life or someone else’s is in danger.

Nashville officers shot 10 people last year — seven fatally — and two young men also killed themselves during encounters with officers. Criminal charges have not been filed in any of those cases.

District Attorney Glenn Funk told reporters at the time of Delke’s plea deal that he offered the agreement because it was not a “slam dunk case,” and he worried the trial could have ended in a hung jury or an acquittal, with no time served at all.

Courtesy Tennessean Via Pool

Vickie Hambrick was overcome with emotion last July as Andrew Delke pleaded guilty to manslaughter for the 2018 killing of her son, Daniel.

Hambrick broke down in sobs in the courtroom on the day of plea hearing, after her attorney urged the judge not to accept the deal. Delke was temporarily escorted out of the courtroom while Hambrick cried and cursed.

“I hate you!” she screamed at the former officer and rejected an apology he had made on the stand moments earlier.

Hambrick cursed him again at Monday’s meeting. Had her son killed Delke, she said, he would have been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

“Y’all would have thrown away the key on a Black man,” she said.

Just weeks after a Nashville police officer admitted in court that his decision to fatally shoot a man was “not reasonably necessary,” the department has unveiled an updated use-of-force policy that emphasizes de-escalation.

The 31-page document reflects demands from last summer’s nationwide protests against police violence and several recent recommendations from the city’s Community Oversight Board and Policing Policy Commission. And it makes it clearer that officers should try other options before punching, kicking or pulling a trigger.

WPLN News compared the old and new policies to see what changes were made. Here are some of the most notable revisions:

Setting a new tone

Rachel Iacovone WPLN News

Demonstrators hold signs, one directly speaking to the Metro Nashville Police Department, during the March For Justice in June 2020.

When thousands of people poured into the streets of downtown last summer to protest police brutality, then-Chief Steve Anderson pledged to “tear down the fences” between the department and community members who had lost trust. But, at the time, the Metro Nashville Police Department’s use-of-force policy made no mention of terms like “duty to intervene” or other reforms that protesters were demanding.

The new policy sets a different tone starting on the first page. It instructs officers to use force only when it’s “necessary and reasonable.” And that the force should not violate anyone’s civil rights.

The new introduction encourages officers to use “non-confrontational verbal skills, empathy, and/or active listening” when they encounter someone in crisis and when they need to control a situation to make an arrest or keep people safe. Using force in a “reasonable manner,” the department says, is in the public interest.

“Officers who use excessive or unjustified force degrade the confidence of the community that they serve, undermine the legitimacy of a police officer’s authority, and hinder the Department’s ability to provide effective law enforcement services to the community.”

When is force appropriate?

Most professions don’t allow workers to swing batons, spray Mace or shoot a Taser. Police are granted special powers to use violence to do their jobs — that is, as long as the violence is considered “justified.” And whether it’s justified depends on the parameters laid out in a department’s use-of-force policy.

The types of force allowed — or not explicitly banned — in the old use-of-force policy didn’t always square with what community members considered to be reasonable. For instance, activists and researchers criticized the department for not requiring officers to try safer methods before resorting to violence.

The updated policy includes new instructions about when it’s OK for an officer to use force and cites the seminal 1989 Graham v. Connor U.S. Supreme Court case that lays out when it’s reasonable.

Courtesy Metro Nashville Police Department

The Nashville police department’s new use of force policy describes 13 factors officers should consider to determine if use of force is reasonable.

It also lists 13 factors that officers should consider before using force. Those include whether it’s feasible to use de-escalation tactics or another alternative, the seriousness of the crime the person may have committed and whether the person poses an immediate threat to the officer or others.

New language has been added to prohibit officers from using force “solely because another officer is,” as punishment or for retaliation. It also requires officers to intervene if they see another member of the department violating the law or police policy.

This so-called “Duty to Intervene” has recently been implemented at departments across the country as part of the #8cantwait campaign, which urged police to make eight changes last year, following the killing of George Floyd. MNPD introduced a new training about the duty to intervene last June. Now, it’s officially part of policy.

Another addition from the #8cantwait list is a new section about de-escalation. Officers were already encouraged in their training to try other ways to defuse situations before resorting to violence, but they were not explicitly instructed to do so in the use-of-force policy.

The Community Oversight Board urged the department to require de-escalation in a policy advisory report last summer. So did the mayor’s Policing Policy Commission , which released its own set of recommendations last fall. Now, the manual says employees “shall” use de-escalation techniques when “feasible” and that they should “continually assess the situation” to see if they can use those techniques instead of force.

The policy lists multiple de-escalation techniques, including verbal persuasion, moving to a safer distance, deep breathing and avoiding unnecessary displays of weapons. But it tells officers that they can use these techniques only if whoever they are interacting with is willing to cooperate.

“Cooperation is more likely obtained by conveying respect and professionalism to the subject throughout the contact,” the policy states.

More explicit prohibitions

Other changes to the policy add clarity to explicitly ban certain uses of force.

Employees are now prohibited from intentionally hitting someone’s head, neck or throat with an impact device, like a baton, unless it’s a situation when they would be justified to use deadly force. In other words, officers should strike someone in the throat only if they believe they or someone else could immediately be killed. And they should be prepared for that action to potentially cause someone else’s death.

In following with #8cantwait and the Community Oversight Board’s recommendations, the department has prohibited officers from shooting at or from a moving car, motorcycle or bike “unless absolutely necessary” to protect someone’s life.

Alexis Marshall WPLN News

A protester at the March for Justice in June of 2020 stands in front of the Capitol building to oppose racism and police brutality.

And in response to another board recommendation, MNPD has also explicitly banned neck restraints. The technique was already barred by state law and was not taught at the academy. But it hadn’t been addressed in depth in the manual.

Officers are now prohibited from restraining someone on their stomachs, as George Floyd was, for “any longer than necessary.” If a person has to be placed in the prone position, officers are supposed to reposition them in a way that allows them to breathe better as soon as they’ve been “properly secured.”

Some other new language bars officers from using deadly force to prevent someone from harming him or herself. If there’s no threat to police or other members of the public, deadly force is not allowed. This addition is particularly timely, given that three people have shot themselves during encounters with Nashville police this year. In two situations, officers didn’t fire their weapons. But, in one instance, the man suffered wounds from both his own gun and an officer’s. A medical examiner was unable to determine which bullet killed him, according to The Tennessean.

One additional notable change is that employees are now not only required to administer first aid if someone is injured, but to do so “as quickly as reasonably possible.”

Looking for patterns

The updated policy doesn’t just change how police will be instructed to use force. It also modifies the department’s process for reviewing officers’ actions.

MNPD already had a tracking system in place, which required officers to fill out a form any time they use any type of force – even just holding their Taser without discharging it. But now, the policy more clearly defines each kind of force that must be documented. It also requires officers to report new details, like when someone in custody complains of a self-inflicted injury or pain from handcuffs.

Plus, the new policy sets clearer guidance for the department’s annual use-of-force data analysis. It will now include demographic patterns about who has been subjected to force and how data trends have impacted additional changes to use of force protocols, equipment and training.

Those reports will be shared with the chief of police and the Force Review Board, which decides whether officers’ uses of force are within policy. (The policy doesn’t specify if the reports will also be shared with the public). A representative from the civilian-run police oversight agency is also now guaranteed a seat on the board, so that police, alone, won’t be policing their uses of force in the future.

It wasn’t how the Hambrick family planned to mark the three-year anniversary of the shooting.

They’d planned to spend the month of July in court. They’d been bracing for opening statements. For witness testimony. For jury deliberations. A verdict.

They hoped now-former Nashville Police Officer Andrew Delke would be found guilty of first-degree murder for shooting Daniel Hambrick in the back as he ran away with a gun in his hand. They hoped Delke would spend the rest of his life in prison.

But three years later, none of that had happened.

Samantha Max WPLN News

Three years later, Daniel Hambrick’s relatives and supporters are frustrated that the officer who killed him never went to trial.

Just weeks before the anniversary — and days before the murder case was set to go to trial — Delke had pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for a three-year sentence. One year for each one that Hambrick’s loved ones had waited to see the officer locked up. And, as they pointed out a vigil marking the anniversary, a year for each bullet that struck and killed the 25-year-old as he sprinted in the opposite direction.

But those who honored Hambrick’s life Saturday night vowed to continue supporting the Hambrick family — and to prevent future killings.

“This group is not afraid to continue the journey, because the journey has just started,” Rev. Venita Lewis told a few dozen people gathered at Watkins Park, across the street from where Hambrick was shot in July of 2018. “We will get victory in the midst of what seems like the other side won.”

Local community organizers urged those at the vigil to work together to protect one another from violence, so that neighborhoods would no longer need police. But as long as officers are patrolling Black neighborhoods, they said they hoped the department would send officers who aren’t afraid of the citizens they serve.

“We are tired of police officers coming to our community and murdering a community member and then saying that they’re scared,” said Larry Turnley, a violence interrupter with the restorative justice group Gideon’s Army. “We are tired of them using that same talking point.”

The memorial started with a moment of prayer. Then a young woman held the hand of Vickie Hambrick, Daniel Hambrick’s mother, and began to sing. As hymns spilled out of her mouth, the rest of group bowed their heads. When the woman finished singing, Vickie Hambrick held her tight in an embrace and cried.

“You don’t know how much I appreciate you,” Hambrick told her. “To be young, I appreciate you. You just don’t know how much time you’ve got, baby.”

Samantha Max WPLN News

A vigil for Daniel Hambrick, who was fatally shot by a city police officer in 2018, included a release of lanterns.

After a few speeches, the crowd moved to the parking lot. Dark clouds loomed in the sky and thunder had begun to rumble. No one wanted to rush the moment, but the rain was coming soon.

People scribbled messages on paper lanterns, then started to light them on fire. Before long, the sky had filled with glowing white orbs. Little kids watched in awe.

As the rainclouds grew closer, a woman began to sing a familiar song, one that seemed fitting after three years of pent up grief.

“Let it go.”

Andrew Delke was supposed to stand trial this July. He was the first Nashville police officer charged with murder for shooting someone on duty.

But just days before jury selection was set to begin, the prosecution and the defense agreed to a last-minute plea deal for a lesser crime. The trial was canceled — and the family of the man who was killed was outraged.

In this episode, we’ll take you through that emotional day in court. We’ll explain why this trial was canceled at the last minute, after three years of protests, preparation and heated courtroom battles. And we’ll hear from voices you’ve gotten to know over the course of this series about whether this plea deal is progress, or just history repeating itself.

Deadly Force is a production of Nashville Public Radio. Written, produced and sound designed by Samantha Max. Edited by Chas Sisk, Emily Siner and Anita Bugg. Damon Mitchell also contributed reporting. Find the rest of this podcast at wpln.org/deadlyforce. 

• More: Read the episode transcript.

The Tennessean (Pool)

Andrew Delke and his attorney David Raybin stand in court as Delke pleads guilty to manslaughter on July 2, 2021, for the 2018 killing of Daniel Hambrick.

Courtesy Tennessean Via Pool

Vickie Hambrick enters the courtroom where Andrew Delke pleads guilty to manslaughter on July 2, 2021, for the 2018 killing of her son Daniel Hambrick.

Samantha Max WPLN News

Sam Hambrick says he’s frustrated the district attorney didn’t consult with his family before agreeing to a plea deal for the police officer who killed his cousin. “You can’t make that decision for a mother who lost her child,” he says.

Samantha Max WPLN News

A street sign on Jo Johnston Avenue memorializes the spot where Daniel Hambrick, called “Lil Dan Dan” by family and friends, was killed by a Nashville police officer on July 26, 2018.

Walter Searcy has been pushing for changes at the Nashville police department for half a century. And he’s been closely following the case of Andrew Delke.

Delke resigned as a police officer and accepted a plea deal last week, just days before he was supposed to stand trial. I spoke with Searcy shortly after the hearing about how little has changed in his decades of activism.

Back in 1973, Walter Searcy protested the shooting of another young Black man by a white rookie police officer. In that case, the officer was charged with manslaughter — the same crime Andrew Delke pleaded guilty to.

Courtesy Tennessean via Newspapers.com

A clipping of a Tennessean article from the 1970s about the case of Jackie Pyle, the only other Nashville police officer charged with homicide for killing someone. He was ultimately convicted on lesser charges and fined $10.

That case ended in a mistrial, and the officer was ultimately convicted of less serious charges. He was fined only $10. Like Delke, he faced the minimum penalty for his crimes.

Nearly 50 years have passed, and yet the outcome is so similar. I ask Searcy how he feels about that. He chuckles on the other end of the phone line.

“So similar. So similar. So similar,” he says, pausing each time he repeats it. “It just again demonstrates, as much progress as we like to think that we’ve made, there are things that make the progress seem anomalous and that the old norms just continue to persist.”

Searcy says officers are essentially allowed to carry out the death penalty, without a charge or a trial. And that those killed by police don’t get the presumption of innocence that’s supposed to be guaranteed in our justice system. Officers can decide in a split second whether someone should live or die.

“And that’s a frightening proposition,” he says. “And that’s why so many of our parents, if not the overwhelming majority, have to give their children the instructions.”

Samantha Max WPLN News

A child holds a sign that reads “When do I go from cute to dangerous” at a protest in downtown Nashville in the summer of 2020.

Searcy is talking about the instructions many Black children receive about how to avoid dangerous interactions with police. He says parents might even warn their kids not to drive at all in certain situations or times of day, just to be safe.

“If you keep me talking about it, you know, I just get even more depressed,” Searcy says. Not in the clinical sense, he says. “But it does piss me off. Let me say that.”

Searcy has spent more than 50 years protesting racial discrimination and police violence in Nashville. And it’s been hard for him to see officers shoot one person after the next and then be cleared of wrongdoing.

More: Learn more about Searcy’s decades-long push for better relations between the police and the community in episode three of WPLN’s podcast Deadly Force.

In the months leading up to the first murder trial of a Nashville officer, police shot five people. Those incidents are still under investigation. But the department has defended officers’ actions each time.

I ask Searcy what changes he would like to see in how the police department trains its officers, to avoid the cycle of shootings he’s witnessed time and again over the years.

“There’s no reasonable basis for the continued misconceptions on the street by police of what they’re facing,” he says. “The 14-year-old who looks to the policeman like a 24-year-old.”

Searcy says training needs to teach recruits to see everyone as a person first.

“If that’s not what we lead with but instead we lead with demonizing the perp and the other names we ascribe to criminal actors, we’re going to continue to have these problems,” he says. “And for those responsible for the training not to recognize that just simply perpetuates it.”

I bring up the term “implicit bias.” Many departments, including Nashville’s, have adopted training to help officers identify the unconscious thoughts we all have about people of different races and backgrounds. These classes have been touted as a tool to prevent police violence against Black people.

But I ask Searcy if he thinks it’s possible for white officers to unlearn the racial biases that even the most well-intentioned can’t avoid. And he says it’ll take more than implicit bias courses to solve the problem.

Tony Gonzalez WPLN

Until recently, on day one of training, every new recruit in the Nashville Police Academy was issued a stack of reading materials. Right on the top is Tactical Edge, a textbook dedicated to high risk patrol.

“These things are occurring, and they are not random. They are just simply not random,” Searcy says. “They are a function of the training. And I can recall the manual that was being used until late in Steve Anderson’s tenure.”

Under former chief Anderson, the book, called “Tactical Edge,” remained part of the curriculum when Delke went through the academy. It taught officers to do whatever it takes to survive. And it also included dehumanizing language about people of color and public school students.

The department stopped using the book after WPLN News reported on it in 2017. A training instructor said at the time he didn’t believe the book was “controversial” but said the academy wasn’t teaching the sections identified by WPLN News.

“We’ve gotten rid of the manual, supposedly,” Searcy says. “But we haven’t moved far beyond those practices.”

So, I ask Searcy why he thinks both sides agreed to this deal, if he sees it as such a small step toward better policing. He says it would have been tough for the prosecution to get a conviction.

But what about Delke? I ask: Do you feel like this is a win for the defense?

“In the pantheon of things, I think it’s probably a win for no one,” Searcy says. “I mean Delke, he’s a young guy. And you know, he’s going to be a convicted felon, and he’s going to serve some time. So he’s not what he started out to be.”

Plus, Searcy says the victim’s loved ones and many in the community won’t be satisfied, either. With this plea deal, he says, no one is going home without some loss.

Samantha Max is WPLN’s criminal justice reporter and host of the Deadly Force podcast. You can find that series and all of her reporting on this case at wpln.org. 

Jury selection was supposed to begin Tuesday morning for the first trial of a Nashville police officer charged with murder.

But Andrew Delke has already been booked in the Davidson County jail, where he’s now serving a three-year sentence for manslaughter. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge Friday.

WPLN’s Samantha Max was in court. She spoke with WPLN’s Morning Edition host Nina Cardona about the plea deal, how the sides agreed to it, and how people have reacted. You can hear their conversation by pressing play on the audio at the top of this story or read a transcript below.

NC: So, Sam, this plea deal has caught a lot of people by surprise after waiting three years for trial. Why did the two sides decide not to go through with it after so much preparation and pressure from the local community?

SM: So the defense says the plea agreements are incredibly common in criminal cases, especially for people who could potentially spend a lot of time in prison if they’re convicted. And Delke could have faced life in prison, which would have been essentially 51 years without the possibility of parole.

So, instead, Delke has been sentenced to three years, which he’ll serve in a local jail. And if he doesn’t misbehave, he could actually get out in about a year and a half, which is a huge jump from what he was facing originally. Plus, the defense said that they were really concerned about the jury being influenced by people who don’t support police or who might even get violent if Delke [were] acquitted.

NC: Why did the prosecution offer that deal?

SM: So, the prosecution told reporters that they stood by their belief that Hambrick did not need to die. That Delke was — they don’t think that Delke was justified when he shot Hambrick in the back as he ran away. But District Attorney Glenn Funk said that he didn’t think this was a slam dunk case because Hambrick had a gun in his hand and because Delke did tell him to stop — Delke did tell him to stop and warned that he would shoot if Hambrick kept running.

Plus, Funk was also really worried about a hung jury, which he thought could result in a mistrial. And, you know, I think for him, the threat of losing this case or having a mistrial was just too much to bear, especially given kind of the environment around policing right now.

NC: So what about Delke now? Obviously had to agree to this settlement, too. Did he have anything to say in court on Friday?

SM: Yeah. So, for the first time, really in a long time, we actually heard from Delke live and in person. He was visibly nervous. You could hear the unease in his voice. He was kind of stammering a bit as he was answering some questions with the judge just to kind of make sure that he understood what was going on.

But then after that, he gave his own statement. That really set a different tone from the argument that his attorneys and supporters at the union have been making for three years now. You know, they’ve been saying over and over that he was just following his training when he killed Daniel Hambrick.

But Delke was apologetic. He said his use of force was not reasonably necessary. He called the incident tragic, said no mother should have to lose her child. He also said not a single day had gone by that he hadn’t thought about his actions and the impact that they’ve had, not just on himself and on the handbrakes, but on the community and the police department. And he said he hoped this case would contribute positively to what he called the much-needed discussion about how police are trained and how the community wants to interact with people.

NC: Well, how did the Hambrick family respond to all of this?

SM: They did not accept his apology. After Delke gave a statement, Hambrick’s mother, Vickie Hambrick went out with her attorney and a few relatives to share her own thoughts on the plea deal.

So, first, the attorney read a prepared statement on Hambrick’s behalf. And in that statement, Hambrick called her son the love of her life and said that no one could fill the void left by his death. She also criticized the prosecutors and the defense for just going ahead with this deal without getting her input.

After reading that statement, the attorney urged the judge not to accept the deal, and then Hambrick started speaking off the cuff. She was very emotional, sobbing, struggling to catch her breath, and then she just started shrieking. She said she didn’t accept Delke’s apology, that she hated him. Some curse words were flying around. And then when she started to reach in Delke’s direction, that’s when family members started kind of pulling her back, trying to calm her down. And Delke was whisked out of the courtroom.

NC: Well, an intense situation, obviously, emotions were very raw, why were there no protests over the weekend?

SM: You know, it’s interesting. There hasn’t been that much mobilization around this case from the beginning. Obviously, there were some protests, but this is certainly a murkier case than, you know, George Floyds death in Minneapolis, which turned out thousands and thousands of people. Plus, we’ve had a long period of time between the shooting in the trial and in general. You know, I think there’s a very tight knit activist community here, but it’s quite small and it takes a lot for them to kind of bring out the larger masses.

NC: So what do you think this case means for Nashville?

SM: You know, I think on the one hand, for the first time in Nashville’s history, a police officer is in jail for killing someone. And that’s a big deal that will likely change the way that police see their jobs. It could even have a chilling effect like we saw in Baltimore after Freddie Gray’s death, where officers felt afraid to do their jobs because they didn’t want to get in serious trouble.

But on the other hand, three years with the possibility that it could be reduced to a year and a half in jail is just not justice in a lot of people’s eyes. And plus, five people have been shot by police this year and none of those officers have been charged yet. So Chief Drake says he wants reform for the department, but we’ll have to see if MNPD really does change to prevent more shootings and killings.

Samantha Max is WPLN’s criminal justice reporter and host of the Deadly Force podcast. You can find that series and all of her reporting on this case at wpln.org. 

Vickie Hambrick clutched her attorney’s hand as she walked to the front of the courtroom. Her son, Daniel Hambrick, was close to her heart, emblazoned on a royal blue T-shirt that read, “Rest In Peace Dan Dan.”

Courtesy Tennessean Via Pool

Vickie Hambrick enters the courtroom where Andrew Delke pleads guilty to manslaughter on July 2, 2021, for the 2018 killing of her son Daniel Hambrick.

Attorney Joy Kimbrough wrapped her arm around Vickie Hambrick’s shoulder and whispered in her ear. Then she told the judge she’d be reading a statement on the grieving mother’s behalf.

“On June 1, 1993, I gave birth to Daniel Edward Hambrick,” Kimbrough read. “He was my only child and the love of my life.”

Barely two months after Daniel Hambrick’s 25th birthday, he was shot to death by a Nashville police officer during a foot chase in 2018. That officer would become the first in the city’s history to be charged with murder for an on-duty shooting.

But nearly three years after her son’s killing, Hambrick said she was still waiting for justice. She’d found out the day before that the prosecution had offered Andrew Delke a plea deal for voluntary manslaughter and a three-year sentence. Delke had accepted. But before the judge signed off on the agreement, Hambrick had one final chance to urge him not to.

“There’s not one hour that goes by that I do not think of Daniel,” Hambrick’s attorney read. “Even though I have friends and family, there’s a void in me that cannot be filled. Nothing and no one compares to my precious son.”

In the statement, Hambrick said that she was angry. Mad. Disgusted. She prayed that no other mother would have to endure what she had. And she said that she was against the plea deal, which she called a “backroom bargain.”

Courtesy Tennessean Via Pool

Andrew Delke listens to victim impact statements from the family of Daniel Hambrick as he pleads guilty to manslaughter on July 2, 2021, for the 2018 killing of Hambrick.

As Hambrick’s lawyer addressed the judge, a heaviness hung over the courtroom. On one side, Delke sat sullenly, flanked by his defense team, relatives and supporters from the Fraternal Order of Police. On the other, Hambrick’s family and friends held one another and wiped away tears. Occasionally, they clapped or grumbled in agreement, as Hambrick’s words grew stronger and Kimbrough’s delivery more impassioned.

Demonstration before hearing

Emotions were running high from the start of the day. Loved ones and advocates for criminal justice reform gathered early outside the Justice A.A. Birch Building, filling the street with chants of, “No justice, no peace.” Then they crowded into the hallway outside Judge Monte Watkins’ courtroom, waiting anxiously to be let in.

After the family was escorted inside, they quickly burst back out through the wooden doors, the mother in tears. Both sides had agreed ahead of time not to wear any clothing with political statements. Someone’s shirt didn’t pass muster. They adjusted in the bathroom and filed back in again, as the crowd in the hallway applauded.

Throughout the hearing, those in the pews continued to voice their support, quietly at first. They clapped in agreement as Hambrick criticized prosecutors and defense attorneys for implying her son’s life was worth only three years and that she was “lucky to get that.”

“We all know that if Daniel had executed Delke by shooting him in the back of his head and in his back and in his buttocks as he ran away, he would be riding on death row, waiting on the electric chair,” Kimbrough read. That’s when those watching a livestream in the hallway started stomping so loudly the floor in the courtroom jury began to shake.

Samantha Max WPLN News (File)

A memorial commemorates the 2018 killing of Daniel Hambrick at a protest in downtown Nashville on July 4, 2020.

Hambrick’s statement criticized the FOP for attacking her son’s character. She said the police department had failed to accept accountability. And she lambasted former District Attorney Torry Johnson’s decision to testify on behalf of the defense “and against the people.”

With the plea deal, she said, the current district attorney, Glenn Funk, had “lost his nerve” and forced the settlement down her throat.

More stomping and clapping. The judge called for order. But Hambrick had more to say.

“I have contempt for this system. I have contempt for this plea. I have contempt for the FOP,” Hambrick’s attorney read. “And I have special contempt for Andrew Delke. May you all rot in hell.”

That concluded the written statements. But then Kimbrough started to speak off the cuff. She begged the judge not to accept the deal, just as she said hundreds of callers from the community had asked her to do in the hours since news broke about the agreement.

“It’s disrespectful to the family. It’s disrespectful to the community,” Kimbrough said. “And it isn’t warranted, based on the facts.”

The attorney said Hambrick’s rights as a victim had been violated when “white men” reached a deal without consulting her. And she told Watkins, who is Black, that he had the power “to do the right thing.”

Kimbrough and Hambrick embraced. Then the mother leaned over the lectern, bowed her head as she caught her breath, and began to whimper.

Courtesy Tennessean Via Pool

Vickie Hambrick is overcome with emotion as she speaks in court where Andrew Delke pleads guilty to manslaughter on July 2, 2021, for the 2018 killing of her son, Daniel Hambrick.

“My baby,” she cried. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe this, Judge.”

Hambrick said it over and over, as loved ones rubbed her back and told her to take her time. She banged the table and began to scream.

“I hate you!” Hambrick shrieked, looking at Delke from across the courtroom. “I don’t accept your apology!”

The shouting continued, as three years of emotions spilled out of a woman who had watched her son’s death on video, and who had endured years of legal and political battles, all the while waiting for some sense of closure.

Within moments, the lectern had been pushed to the ground. Arms reached out to hold Hambrick back as she began to reach toward the former officer.

People in the pews rose to their feet. Delke was whisked out of the courtroom. The judge and defense attorneys soon followed.

Hambrick’s daughter wrapped her arms around her mother and pulled her away. Others cried. They yelled. All the while, the district attorney looked on with his hands in his pockets, silent.

Sheila Clemmons Lee, whose son, Jocques Clemmons, was killed by an officer in 2017, is sobbing. So many tears in this room right now. pic.twitter.com/3gn1vLlHyc

— Samantha Max (@samanthaellimax) July 2, 2021

For several minutes, it was unclear exactly what would happen next. Most of the onlookers had left the courtroom and were chanting in the hallway. Delke was nowhere to be found.

But then the former officer and his attorneys came back. Judge Watkins took his seat. He accepted the deal.

“That’ll be it,” Watkins said.

And with that, court was adjourned.

A Nashville judge accepted Officer Andrew Delke’s guilty plea in court Friday morning, sentencing him to three years in jail for a fatal shooting in 2018.

But the family of Daniel Hambrick, the man Delke killed, made it clear that they did not approve of the deal, and the courtroom was briefly cleared after people inside and outside the courtroom started to shout and stomp.

Delke avoids long-awaited trial

Delke was set to go to trial next week for first-degree murder. Instead, the district attorney’s office has offered a plea deal for voluntary manslaughter. The penalty would still be the toughest ever dealt to a Nashville police officer for an on-duty killing, but substantially less than the maximum penalty if he’d been found guilty of murder.

And although his sentence is three years on paper, a document from Delke’s defense team says “with standard jail credits, he will serve about a year and a half.” At that time, the statement says he’ll be released without probation or parole.

Delke resigned from the police force Thursday and said in court that his use of deadly force wasn’t necessary. He expressed sympathy for Hambrick’s mother and said, “I am responsible for her loss.”

“I hope this case can contribute positively to the much-needed discussion about how police officers are trained and how we as a community want police officers to interact with citizens,” Delke said.

Hambrick family and advocates outraged

The arrangement quickly drew criticism from activists and the Tennessee NAACP as lenient and unfair. And at the start of proceedings, a lawyer for the family asked the judge not to accept any deal.

Paige Pfleger WPLN News

Vickie Hambrick is escorted out of the court room for wearing a shirt with her son Daniel on it. She turned her shirt inside out to enter the court room.

Hambrick’s mother, Vickie Hambrick, submitted a victim impact statement of her own that was read by her attorney, since Vickie is legally blind. In it, she said Daniel, her only child, was the love of her life.

“Daniel recognized at an early age that I had a disability, but he was never ashamed of me or embarrassed by me. He loved me unconditionally and constantly said that he would always take care of me,” she said. “My son was my eyes. Since he’s been gone, things have not been the same, and they never will be.”

The statement continued with what other members of the family told WPLN News after the hearing — that the Hambricks were “angry, mad and disgusted” by the plea agreement and urged the judge to insist on a jury trial instead of what Vickie Hambrick characterized as a “backroom bargain.”

“I have contempt for this system. I have contempt for this plea. I have contempt for the FOP. And I have a special contempt for Andrew Delke,” the statement concluded. “May you all rot in hell.”

Then, Vickie Hambrick took to the stand herself and shouted at Delke that she doesn’t accept his apology. Others in the courtroom began to chant “no justice, no peace.”

“I can’t believe this, judge,” Vickie Hambrick said. “I can’t believe it.”

Sheila Clemmons Lee, whose son, Jocques Clemmons, was killed by an officer in 2017, is sobbing. So many tears in this room right now. pic.twitter.com/3gn1vLlHyc

— Samantha Max (@samanthaellimax) July 2, 2021

In advance of the hearing, about a few dozen supporters of the family gathered outside the courthouse, chanting Daniel Hambrick’s nickname.

More: Critics Call Nashville Officer’s Plea Deal ‘A Slap On The Hand’

Protesters chant Daniel Hambrick’s nickname, Dan Dan. Hambrick was shot in 2018 as he was running away from officer Andrew Delke. Yesterday lawyers announced that Delke was taking a plea deal. @samanthaellimax will have more details on that later today. pic.twitter.com/bFvrnPrp2V

— Paige Southwick Pfleger (@PaigePfleger) July 2, 2021

DA and police chief support plea deal

District Attorney Glenn Funk defended the bargain, saying the guilty plea shows that Daniel Hambrick did not need to die and that Delke’s shooting of him was not justified. He noted that no other Nashville police officer had ever been convicted of homicide for an on-duty killing. 

“It’s rare to see an officer charged,” Funk said. “It’s even more rare to see an officer convicted. It’s even more rare to see an officer plead guilty and go into custody from the courtroom.”

Funk said he didn’t want to risk losing at trial, and that the now former officer won’t be eligible for early release.

Delke’s attorney, David Raybin told reporters he was also worried about the potential verdict, had the case gone to trial. He said jurors could have chosen to convict his client because they didn’t like police, or because they feared that an acquittal could have resulted in protests or violence.

Raybin made the same argument when he tried to get the trial moved out of Nashville, citing the fire set in City Hall by a small number of demonstrators after George Floyd was killed last year. Today, he said the judge’s decision not to relocate the trial or bring in out-of-town jurors factored into the defense team’s decision to strike a plea bargain.

Raybin also reiterated a statement he’s made multiple times in the past three years — that Delke was following his training when he chased Hambrick and pulled the trigger. The former officer had said in court earlier in the morning that he hoped his case would lead to changes in how police are trained.

But when a reporter asked Raybin if he believed there was a need to reform how officers are taught to use force, the attorney said it was a discussion that need to be had, but by the police department.

MNPD declined to comment on Delke’s plea deal or resignation until after the plea deal was signed. Chief John Drake addressed both in a statement Friday morning.

“Today’s guilty plea ends three years of waiting by the Hambrick Family, the Delke family, our police department and Nashville as a whole,” Drake said, in part. “It has been a difficult three years for many, and I again express condolences to the relatives of Daniel Hambrick over his loss.”

This is a developing story that will be updated.

A plea agreement that will allow a Nashville police officer to avoid a trial on a first-degree murder charge is drawing sharp criticisms. 

“A slap on the hand,” reads a statement from the Tennessee State Conference of the NAACP.

“The decision is a hollow victory if not an admission that privilege, institutional racism, and over-policing are foundational to Nashville’s law enforcement community,” the state’s NAACP wrote Thursday night. “It also conveys a bad message given that thousands of Blacks and poor people in Tennessee have been convicted and have served harsher sentences for lesser criminal offenses.”

The reaction follows the announcement that Officer Andrew Delke would accept a plea deal in court Friday and avoid a trial that was scheduled to begin next week. Delke fatally shot 25-year-old Daniel Hambrick in July 2018. After resigning from the police force Thursday, the former officer pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

More: Judge Accepts Nashville Officer’s Voluntary Manslaughter Plea For 2018 Shooting

Although Delke’s sentence is three years on paper, a document from his defense team says “With standard jail credits, he will serve about a year and a half.” At the time of distribution, the statement said Delke would be released without probation or parole.

Hambrick’s family says they were told Thursday that the sentence would be three years. It’s that punishment — substantially less than the potential life sentence if convicted of first-degree murder — that prompted a protest Thursday night followed by another demonstration at the city’s courthouse Friday morning.

The initial protest took place as night fell outside the home of Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk. The Nashville Scene reports there were chants about voting him out of office and speeches on a megaphone decrying local policing and courts.

The demonstration also included a candlelit prayer for the Hambrick family.

Glenn Funk shouldn’t be allowed to step one toe in a Black church, neighborhood, event, etc. for what he put Daniel Hambrick’s family, Jocques Clemmons’ family, and Black Nashville through during his term as district attorney. The blatant disrespect must not be tolerated.

— Gicola Lane (@GicolaLane) July 2, 2021

The Nashville People’s Budget Coalition has been among those rallying.

“Funk — (whose) office routinely railroads Black and Brown people with the harshest, longest sentences possible — shows the inability for the criminal legal system to achieve justice,” the group wrote.

Daniel Hambrick’s sister, Jasmine Davis, told WPLN News that the plea deal surprised her family, and she lamented the outcome in a statement.

“He got just one year for every bullet he put in him,” she said.

Standing outside the NAACP Nashville Branch on Jefferson Street, Sam Hambrick, Daniel’s cousin, also criticized the deal.

“They forced a plea upon us, and said ‘Hey, y’all Blacks, take this, it’s over with,'” he said.

A woman in the crowd shouted, “They didn’t even have the decency to tell her,” referring to how Daniel’s mother, Vickie Hambrick, was blindsided by the plea deal.

“Three years? Why? Why?” Sam Hambrick said. “It’s like, this process, man — we ain’t winning. We ain’t getting no justice.”

He added that if the plea deal was intended to silence the family, it would instead have the opposite effect.

“Dan Dan will live on, man,” he said. “Hambrick Strong will live on. This is a movement, y’all, and we ain’t finished.”

Community rallying continues Friday 

Demonstrators met at the Justice A.A. Birch Building before the plea hearing Friday and were hoping Judge Monte Watkins would reject the deal. 

So far about 40 people have gathered outside the Justice A. A. Birch Building to protest Andrew Delke’s plea deal for the fatal shooting of Daniel Hambrick. A sign on the building behind them reads “the first duty of society is justice.” pic.twitter.com/wfL5WNSbPc

— Paige Southwick Pfleger (@PaigePfleger) July 2, 2021

“I need you to feel that pain when his parents got the call,” Jamel Campbell-Gooch said to the crowd, who chanted in response “Justice! For Dan Dan. Justice! For Dan Dan.”

“They need to know that the decisions that they are making are not OK with us.”

Campbell-Gooch, an activist and member of the Metro Community Oversight Board, rallied the crowd with criticisms of the local criminal justice system.

“Justice for Dan Dan won’t happen in the courts,” he said. “The DA’s office and courts ain’t good for nothing but locking up Black people.”

Paige Pfleger WPLN News

Protesters gather outside the Justice A. A. Birch Building to protest Andrew Delke’s plea deal.

This is a developing story that will be updated.