Jurors will be allowed to view surveillance footage of a 2018 shooting by a Nashville police officer during his murder trial next month, a judge has ruled. That video could sway the outcome of the trial.
More than 70 cameras recorded as Officer Andrew Delke followed Daniel Hambrick’s car into the parking lot of the John Henry Hale Apartments, chased after him and shot him. But about 36 feet of the foot chase — less than two seconds — were never obtained by law enforcement.
The video will likely play a central role in the trial of the first Nashville police officer charged with murder for a shooting in the line of duty. Prosecutors have said their entire case rests on the footage, which has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times since District Attorney Glenn Funk published it two weeks after the 2018 shooting. They say they could have put on a trial months ago, without any expert witnesses, because the video shows everything jurors need to see.
The defense on the other hand, is expected to focus on what isn’t shown in the video: the moment Delke says he became afraid for his life, because Hambrick pointed a gun in his direction. They’ll have no physical evidence to prove this point. But attorneys will be able to suggest that the missing video footage raises enough doubt about the officer’s guilt that he ought to be acquitted.
Delke’s attorneys have argued officials’ failure to acquire that footage violated the officer’s constitutional rights, because it could have included exculpatory evidence. They say that missing clip could have shown Hambrick pointing a gun at Delke, and that if jurors can’t see all of the footage, they shouldn’t be allowed to see any of it.
“Super Bowls are decided on the strength of a video,” defense attorney David Raybin said at a hearing earlier this month. “This man’s life is hanging on a video, and they didn’t preserve it.”
The officer says he decided to shoot after Hambrick aimed a pistol at him. But none of the other camera angles show that encounter, and Judge Monte Watkins, who is presiding over Delke’s murder trial, says he’s not convinced the missing footage could have changed the outcome of the case.
“[T]he video that may or may not have been captured from this 36 feet of ‘void area’ is entirely speculative,” Watkins writes in a motion issued Monday. “As a result, the loss of this specific surveillance footage would not result in a deprivation of Mr. Delke’s right to a fair trial.”
Watkins says the footage preserved by investigators “shows the entirety of the incident” between Delke and Hambrick, and that it provides enough information for jurors to make a decision about the officer’s guilt or innocence. Further, he says the state did its job to preserve all evidence that could have potentially proven the officer’s innocence and that officials did not violate his rights.
A camera technician for the apartment complex says he turned over all of the relevant footage to law enforcement. He says several cameras were not recording the day of the shooting, because they’d been struck by lightning about two months earlier. It’s possible that another camera that could have shown the void area was working, and that the footage was never obtained. But there’s no way of knowing for sure, because the cameras overwrite after 30 days.
Jury selection is slated to begin next Tuesday, July 6, and is expected to last through the end of the week. Opening arguments are scheduled for the following Monday.
WPLN News will be airing radio specials of our series about this case, Deadly Force, Monday through Thursday this week at 6:30 p.m. Tune in on 90.3 or your WPLN app. And follow the Deadly Force podcast in any podcasting app to keep up with our coverage of the trial.
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