Delke Trial: What You Need To Know Before A Nashville Police Officer Goes To Court Next Week

A Nashville police officer will stand trial for murder next week, for the first time in the city’s history. To help tell the story of that shooting, WPLN News launched the Deadly Force podcast. This week we’ll be airing special editions of the first four episodes as half-hour specials.

Tune into special editions of the Deadly Force series on 90.3 or your WPLN app Monday through Thursday at 6:30. You can also follow Deadly Force on any podcasting app.

WPLN’s Samantha Max is the lead reporter, and she talked to WPLN afternoon host Marianna Bacallao about what listeners should know before they tune in.

MB: We’re airing the specials Monday through Thursday night this week to get people ready for trial. Start by telling us what we’ll hear when we tune in tonight.

SM: First, we’ll share the details of the shooting that spurred this murder trial and the backstories of both the man who was killed and the officer who shot him. From there, we kind of zoom out. We dig into the police department’s training and culture, the history of shootings by police in Nashville and the relationship between the city’s predominantly white police department and Black residents.

Basically, the 2018 shooting is really just a starting point because this story is bigger than one shooting or one trial. It’s about how Nashville police interact with the public and why those interactions sometimes turned deadly.

MB: So this podcast launched last summer, not long after George Floyd was killed, but a lot has happened since then. A new police chief for one. How does that change things?

Samantha Max WPLN News

Chief John Drake has pledged to build back trust between police and Nashvillians since taking over the department last year.

SM: John Drake, who’s been with MNPD for more than three decades, replaced Steve Anderson in August. He’s the second Black chief and he’s promised to strengthen relations between the department and the community. Drake’s been doing that by rolling out body cameras and releasing footage when high profile incidents are caught on video.

He’s also eliminated some of the controversial units that proactively looked for crime, instead of responding to 911 calls — including the unit that Delke was assigned to when he chased and shot Hambrick. He’s also mended the relationship with the Community Oversight Board and is trying to make it easier for them to investigate claims of police misconduct.

MB: And is that working?

SM: Well, the COB is definitely working more closely with the department than ever. They’re investigating seven shootings involving police so far this year. Five people have been shot by police and two young men have also shot and killed themselves during interactions with officers. MNPD data show that shootings by police do ebb and flow with none in some years and at most three or four in others. So this year is definitely more than usual.

MB: Why have there been so many shootings this year?

SM: It’s hard to say exactly why, since the circumstances are always different. But in three cases, officers were trying to stop someone in a car and ended up shooting. The same is true with the incident going to trial. It happened after a failed traffic stop.

So, even though traffic stops have declined substantially in the past five years, I think some community members would still like to see this tactic used even less to avoid dangerous encounters.

MB: So that’s been the big news here in Nashville. But what about on the national level?

SM: Derek Chauvin, the Minnesota police officer who killed George Floyd, was convicted on three counts of murder and manslaughter in a trial that captivated the nation this spring. In the meantime, shootings and killings by police continue to dominate headlines.

Of course, the details of our local case are murkier than the Chauvin case in Minneapolis. George Floyd, he was unarmed. He had a knee pressed to his neck for about nine minutes while bystanders urged the officer to stop. And here in Nashville, Hambrick was shot while running with a gun in his hand.

Plus, Chauvin faced different, less-serious homicide charges than Officer Delke. So, it’s hard to say how it will affect the outcome of this case, if at all. But it will definitely be on people’s minds as they watch how this trial plays out in the coming weeks.

Learn more about the details of 2018 shooting and the two men at the center of this case on Episode 1 of Deadly Force Monday night at 6:30 on 90.3 or your WPLN app. You can also follow the podcast by visiting wpln.org/deadlyforce or through your favorite podcasting app.

This story was produced as part of APM Reports’ public media accountability initiative, which supports investigative reporting at local media outlets around the country. Support also came from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.