Nashville’s police chief decommissioned a member of the city’s SWAT team after he fatally shot a man on Saturday morning.
Joshua Baney has been with the Metro Nashville Police Department for 12 years. He fired three shots at 54-year-old Jason William Sexton.
Police say the officer arrived to what was already an hourlong standoff with Sexton, who was holding a sword, arguing with officers, and keeping a woman in his car against her will. The newly arriving officer was told to use his police truck to block the vehicle on Cheshire Drive in northern Davidson County. Instead, body camera footage shows, Baney got out of his truck, moved ahead of other officers, took aim and fired within 10 seconds.
Police had been seeking Sexton since the day before, when he evaded arrest. Then, a few hours before the shooting, police said he threatened a clerk at a gas station, and a family member had called in concerns that he was dangerous to others.
MNPD and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are both reviewing the fatal shooting.
TBI on multiple incidents
TBI agents are also investigating fatal shootings of armed men in Montgomery and Coffee counties. The agency has now been called to 30 shootings by law enforcement this year.
In Coffee County on Friday, deputies tried to serve an arrest warrant on 45-year-old Eric Thurman, who was staying in a tent. Authorities say he injured a deputy with a machete before being fatally shot by a second deputy.
In Montgomery County on Thursday, deputies fatally shot a man after a pursuit out of Dickson County. Law enforcement had been on the lookout for someone stealing trailers. Deputies said they were tracking a stolen trailer and reported being shot at by a man with a rifle. A brief chase led to a crash, and then deputies fired fatal shots.
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