A Nashville police sergeant fatally shot an armed man at a downtown intersection on Monday morning. It is the third shooting involving the Metro Nashville Police Department this year.
The incident began with a 911 call reporting a man openly carrying a handgun along Hermitage Avenue and being described as “distraught.”
Camera footage shows the officer slowly followed in a patrol car for 6 minutes as they approached downtown. The officer stopped multiple times to yell commands for the man to drop the weapon. Those were ignored, and the conflict escalated when they neared a bystander.
The bystander ran off, and the officer — now out of his car — followed the armed man while continue to call for him to drop the weapon. The officer opened fire after the man turned and rushed toward him.
The man was not carrying an ID and was not immediately identified.
City police and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will be examining the actions of Sgt. Robert Weaver, a 27-year veteran of the department.
The TBI has been called to 27 shootings by law enforcement this year. That includes fatal shootings on Sunday by a Cookeville officer and by a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper in Sullivan County.
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