NASHVILLE — Police released video Thursday night showing body camera footage of a confrontation with a man on Interstate 65 who pulled a “cylindrical metal object” from his pocket before nine officers fired with it. their weapons, killing him.
Landon Eastep, 37, was killed after an hours-long standoff with officers about 10 miles south of downtown, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. It started around 2 p.m. Thursday when a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper pulled over after seeing Eastep sitting on a railing on the side of the freeway.
Eastep pulled out a box cutter as the trooper tried to negotiate with him, Metro Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron said in the roughly 8-minute video released Thursday night.
An off-duty Mt. Juliet Police Department officer also pulled over to help, who “attempted to de-escalate the situation and engage with Eastep for approximately 30 minutes as he held the cutter in his left hand and kept his right hand in his pocket,” Aaron said in the video.
The video shows a snippet of body camera footage of Metro Nashville officer James Kidd, which captured the voice of the Mt. Juliet officer as he urged Eastep to surrender and told him they would ask him for help. At least six other officers were visible in the video with weapons drawn, including Kidd. Several police vehicles with flashing lights were also visible nearby, and a helicopter can be seen circling overhead.
Eastep kept his hand in his right pocket throughout the negotiation and held what appeared to be a small black object in his left hand.
“Raise your hand, drop the knife and let’s solve this,” the Mount Juliet officer said during the clash.
At some point it emerged that some of the officers had left Eastep. The Mt. Juliet officer also told Eastep that there were children in a car nearby as he urged him to surrender. Later, Mt. Juliet Police Captain Tyler Chandler told reporters at the scene that the Mt. Juliet officer’s family was in a car on the highway and witnessed the shooting.
“Please,” the Mount Juliet officer said in the video. “They’re going to have to live with that too, not just you and me.”
Around minute 6:15 of the video, Eastep appeared to pull his right hand out of his pocket, grab something, and raise his arms. Video captured multiple gunshots as Eastep fell to the ground. His arms appeared to move as the firing continued and the video cut through footage from another officer’s body camera.
Camera footage of Nashville subway officer Sean Williams is seen in the following video clip, showing Eastep reaching into his pocket and raising his arms as he clutched something in his hands before the officers do not open fire.
An officer was heard shouting “Cease fire!” in Williams’ video while Eastep was on the ground.
In the video, Aaron recounts that nine officers fired their weapons.
“The cylindrical metal object that Eastep pulled out of his pocket was not a gun,” Aaron says in the video.
Six Metro Nashville Police Department officers are on routine administrative duty following the shooting, Aaron said. They are: James Kidd, Justin Pinkelton, Sean Williams, Edin Plancic, Brian Murphy and Sgt. Steven Carrick.
He did not name the off-duty Mt. Juliet officer or the Tennessee Highway Patrol soldiers who also fired their guns.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Nashville District Attorney’s Office will investigate and analyze the shooting in the coming days, Aaron said. Metro Nashville Police will also conduct an administrative review of the shooting.
Contact journalist Rachel Wegner on Twitter @rachelannwegner.
