“Hey baby, I love you,” the text message read. “I thank God every day that I have your beautiful face to look at in my life. I will always have your back and be there when times are hard.”
Chelesy Eastep didn’t realize how much she would treasure that message when her husband sent it a few weeks ago. But as she cried on the steps outside Nashville’s Metro Courthouse Friday evening, she was grateful she had saved it.
Eastep’s husband, Landon Eastep, was killed by police on Thursday afternoon. It was the first shooting by law enforcement this year in Nashville, after a record-setting 10 shootings by Metro Police in 2021. Now, once again, investigations are underway, body camera footage is circulating, loved ones are grieving and a city is left to wonder: Why have so many recent encounters with police turned violent?
“I can’t say that I’m disappointed when you see it happening over and over again,” NAACP President Sheryl Guinn said at a press conference Friday. “Disappointment means that you’re expecting a different outcome. I’m not expecting a different outcome.”
An encounter escalates on the highway
It started Thursday morning, when Landon Eastep woke up “agitated.” Eastep struggled with mental illness, and his widow says he left the house for a walk, to calm down. He left his phone behind.
Around 2 p.m., officials say, a trooper from the Tennessee Highway Patrol spotted Eastep, who was white, on the shoulder of the interstate. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says the trooper tried to talk to him and “the exchange escalated.” That’s when they say Eastep pulled out a box cutter.
Next, an off-duty officer from the Mt. Juliet Police Department rode up to the scene. More state troopers arrived. The Metro Nashville Police Department also called for back-up. Before long, Eastep was surrounded by more than a dozen officers from three different departments, many with guns drawn. Some were holding rifles.
The TBI says officers tried for about 30 minutes to convince Eastep to put the box cutter down. They also told him to take his other hand out of his pocket. In edited body camera footage released by MNPD, the Mt. Juliet officer told Eastep he wouldn’t be taken to jail.
“Just drop it, brother. That’s all you’ve got to do,” the officer said. “I promise you.”
The Mt. Juliet officer pleaded with him for a couple more minutes. Then Eastep reached toward his waist and pulled out what officials describe as a “metal cylindrical object” — not a gun. But he hoisted it in front of himself as if he were about to shoot something.
Nine law enforcement officers fired barrage of bullets at Eastep. He fell to the ground and died at the scene.
“Landon didn’t deserve this. Landon wasn’t a bad guy,” Chelesy Eastep said. “He was crying out for help, and his cries went completely unanswered.”
Calls for more training, help from mental health professionals
The couple were married last May, and her attorney, Joy Kimbrough, acknowledged that they had faced their share of “problems.” Landon Eastep was arrested in November for domestic assault, though Kimbrough would not discuss the details of that case.
In spite of their challenges, the two were in love, the attorney said. She added that any criminal record was irrelevant in the moment officers shot Eastep. She said officers need better training so they won’t be so quick to pull the trigger — especially when they encounter someone who may be mentally ill.
“Metro is not equipped to handle people with mental health issues. They’re not equipped,” Kimbrough said. “I don’t know why that’s not at the top of some budget or some type of concern.”
Nashville Police shot multiple people in the midst of mental health crises last year. In March, an officer shot and injured a woman holding a baseball bat and pick axe in her yard who said she wanted the police to kill her. Less than two months later, they killed a man living behind a Goodwill store after his mother called to say he had a gun and was worried he planned to use it.
“I really don’t want the police to kill him,” she told dispatch. “But I don’t want him to kill anyone else, either.”
Several hours later, he was dead.
In June, the police department launched a pilot program that pairs officers with clinicians from the Mental Health Cooperative. But the partnership is limited to just 16 officers in the Hermitage and North police precincts.
Chief John Drake announced Friday that the program will expand to two more precincts — downtown and Midtown Hills. He has also asked the training division to review the tactics used by MNPD officers on the interstate Thursday.
Five of the six Nashville officers who fired their weapons at Eastep have been placed on desk duty while their actions are investigated. The department decommissioned Officer Brian Murphy, who they say fired his rifle twice after another officer at the scene called for a “cease fire.” That means the department has taken Murphy’s badge and gun and placed him on leave.
Metro Nashville Community Oversight will review the MNPD officers’ actions for potential policy violations, as will the department’s Office of Professional Accountability. The TBI is conducting an investigation into the actions of all the officers at the scene, which will then be shared with the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office to consider if criminal charges are warranted.
“When the investigation is complete, I will take any appropriate action,” District Attorney Glenn Funk said in a statement Friday. “I will also release the TBI report in full.”
Samantha Max WPLN NewsNashville NAACP President Sheryl Guinn says mental health professionals should have been called to the scene before Eastep was shot.
Guinn from the NAACP hopes this case will prompt police to think differently about how they treat people who need help.
“If you are here to protect and serve, that means that you go above and beyond to make sure that those people first are protected,” she said. “When you are protecting first and you see someone who is actually struggling mentally, as Mr. Eastep was, you go above and beyond.”
Guinn wishes police had called in mental health professionals — not more officers with guns.
“That’s not what they did, and they do this over and over again. That’s the issue,” she said. “That’s why this is so heartbreaking.”
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