Nashville’s police chief stripped an officer of policing authority after he fired the final two shots in a fatal confrontation in which nine officers opened fire on a man holding a box cutter. Landon Eastep is estimated to have been shot 30 times.
Authorities had pleaded during the traffic-stopping encounter with Landon Eastep to surrender Thursday while they kept their guns drawn, but fatally shot him when he pulled another shiny object from his pocket and pointed it at police as if ready to shoot. That object turned out not to be a gun.
“I think they should have been trying to get him some sort of help,” she said. “I don’t think they should have been standing there with guns drawn ready to shoot given any opportunity.”Within hours of the incident, police had released body camera footage and identified the officers involved in the shooting of the 37-year-old Nashville man along Interstate 65.
The two state troopers involved are on routine discretionary leave with pay, according to Tennessee Highway Patrol spokesperson Lt. Bill Miller. A Tennessee Highway Patrol officer initially saw Eastep sitting on a guardrail and stopped to offer him a ride. After a brief interaction, the man pulled a box cutter and the trooper called for backup, police said. Many other officers arrived, blocking traffic in both directions as a helicopter circled overhead.
“Come on brother, just drop the knife, get your hand out of your pocket. If that’s a gun what you’ve got in there, don’t worry about it, we’ll figure it out! We’ll fix it!” the officer said.Finally, later, Eastep pulled a “silver, shiny cylindrical object” from his pocket and pointed it at officers. The object, it turned out, was not a weapon, Aaron said.
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