NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Tennessee police officers repeatedly pleaded with a man who stopped traffic along Interstate 65 to drop a box cutter and surrender, saying no one wanted to hurt him.
Instead, he abruptly pulled another shiny object from his pocket and pointed it at police as if ready to shoot, prompting nine of the officers who surrounded him at gunpoint to open fire, killing him on the highway, according to officials and body camera video.
Nashville Police released the images and identified the officers involved within hours of the shooting of Landon Eastep, 37, of Nashville, on Thursday afternoon.
“Nine law enforcement personnel fired their weapons after Eastep took a stance as if he had a firearm,” Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said in the video.
Calling the shooting a “firing squad execution,” attorney Joy Kimbrough said on Twitter that Eastep’s family would speak at a news conference Friday evening.