By Ashley Benkarski
NASHVILLE, TN — The Nashville Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People held a press conference Friday to condemn the police shooting death of an unarmed man Thursday afternoon.
“It appeared as a firing squad, as an execution. It was very difficult to watch,” said Sheryl Guinn, President of the NAACP’s Nashville Chapter.
“The circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. Eastep by MNPD and other members of local law enforcement are gravely disturbing,” Metro Nashville Community Oversight said in a press release. Director Jill Fitcheard will begin an independent investigation into the shooting and will ask the District Attorney General, Tennessee Highway Patrol and Mount Juliet Police Department “to release their investigative findings including any records, video, reports, witness statements or other pertinent information related to the death of Mr. Landon Eastep, to the MNCO for review,” the press release said.
Guinn, along with Senator Brenda Gilmore and other community leaders and organizations, spoke in support of the widow of Landon Eastep, a 37-year-old man who was killed by nine law enforcement officers on Interstate 65 near the Harding Place exit.
“We are here to express our deep concern for how this situation was handled and for the horrible death that has now been memorialized on social media of Mr. Eastep,” Guinn stated.
“The NAACP just doesn’t advocate for Black people, the NAACP advocates for anyone that has been treated unjustly and in this case, he was severely treated unjustly,” said Sen. Gilmore.
Attorney Joy Kimbrough, who is representing Eastep’s widow, Chelsey, said her client was “concerned about the narrative that the police department immediately put out, as they always do, right after the shooting.”
The couple had been married since May 21, 2021.
Videos taken of the event by witnesses went viral before Metro Police released bodycam footage of the encounter.
Metro PD spokesman Don Aaron said Eastep had been holding a box cutter and talking with officers for nearly 30 minutes. Body camera footage showed officers opening fire on Eastep as he pulled his right hand from his pocket.
The item dropped from Eastep’s hand, silver and cylindrical, can be seen on the video but has not yet been identified by MNPD, Aaron said.
Kimbrough said while Eastep, who was found by police sitting on the guardrail along a section of I-65, was going through a stressful time in his life he did not pose a threat to travelers or responding law enforcement.
“This is now at least three cases within a year’s time where someone with mental health issues found themselves on the other side of a barrel with Metro Nashville police, and this time other agencies,” Kimbrough continued.
“Now we have a young man who was unarmed; started out as a welfare check and now he’s laying in some morgue.”
She added that the District Attorneys “should remove the badge and uniform from their minds as they analyze this case.”
Kimbrough noted the widely-felt aftershocks of these shootings on family members and the community, reverberations of a loss of trust in police that has only worsened with recent shootings by Metro officers.
Guinn said she felt “the community has been completely ignored.”
“If you are here to protect and serve, that means that you go above and beyond to make sure that those people, first, are protected,” said Guinn, adding that Eastep’s mental struggles meant he needed the officers’ aid.
“We see that they stopped traffic on both sides of the interstate. Now if you stop the traffic on both sides of the interstate, wouldn’t it make the most sense that you want to get this gentleman some help?”
Kimbrough also asked why less lethal options, such as tasers, weren’t used when such items have been purchased for officers through the City’s budget.
“I want people to know that Landon didn’t deserve this. Landon wasn’t a bad guy. And he was crying out for help and his cries went completely unanswered,” Eastep’s wife said.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s list of officer-involved shootings can be found at https://www.tn.gov/tbi/crime-issues/crime-issues/officer-involved-shootings.html
