Man Killed in Hail of Police Bullets Fired by NINE Cops on Nashville Interstate

[JoeOtterbein]

Daily Beast

In a video, Landon Eastep can be seen raising his arms towards police. Gunfire followed.

Blake Montgomery
Reporter/Editor
Updated Jan. 27, 2022 10:32PM ET / Published Jan. 27, 2022 5:33PM ET

Nine police officers in Tennessee opened fire on a 37-year-old man on Thursday afternoon after a confrontation on an interstate highway in Nashville. The man, who police said had been sitting on a guardrail on the busy roadway, died.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation identified the victim late Thursday as Landon Eastep. Samantha McGill-Barge, Eastep’s sister-in-law, told The Daily Beast she was baffled that he was on the highway Thursday.

“I wasn’t aware there was anything wrong,” she said. She added that Eastep’s widow was in contact with a lawyer but had no plans to take legal action. The two had dated for nearly four years and been married just shy of a year, McGill-Barge said.

“He loved my sister and my kids very much and, to my knowledge, was a good guy. It’s a very unfortunate situation. I’m in shock. I was at home with my kids when I found out,” she said.

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more at link

[Grasswire2]

1. the video shows one man standing on the side of the highway

I couldn't begin to count the number of cops coming, running, standing in a sort of execution line.

He raised his arms; they executed him.

[dalton99a]

2. Kick

[USALiberal]

16. A taser would have solved this problem!!! Nt

[Uncle Joe]

3. From what I can tell it looks like he committed suicide by cop.

Thanks for the thread JoeOtterbein.

[radicalleft]

8. And they willingly obliged in his suicide

Although they really didn't have to

[spanone]

9. I guess the current police are incapable of taking someone into custody.

This was an execution and this is in my town. Disgusted.

[Jedi Guy]

11. No cop anywhere will wait to get shot at to confirm that the item in someone's hand is a gun.

He pulled a box cutter on a state trooper and didn't get shot. They tried to talk him down for 30 minutes before he pulled a "shiny cylindrical object" from his pocket, at which point they shot him. They're not going to wait for him to pop off a few rounds to confirm beyond a doubt that the object in question is a gun.

[spanone]

12. Bullshit.

[Jedi Guy]

13. What exactly is bullshit, please? I mean, I obviously know what it is.

But what are you calling bullshit on? The idea that cops don't wait to get shot at when they have reason to believe someone might have a gun? I sure wouldn't wait. Would you?

[radicalleft]

15. What is bullshit is that he was surrounded

by approximately 12 cops (no of which had taken any form of cover) with guns drawn waiting for him to twitch. This situation didn't escalate until the "Calvary" showed up itching for a fight. By your own post above, 1 trooper was speaking with him for 30 minutes. Are you telling me that during that 30 minutes, he could not have been restrained with non-lethal means? That's what is bullshit!

[Jedi Guy]

20. I never asserted that one trooper was speaking with him for 30 minutes, first off.

Last edited Fri Jan 28, 2022, 01:23 PM - Edit history (1)

What I said was that when the first trooper engaged with him to get him off the highway, he pulled a box cutter. I'm not privy to the precise sequence of events, but at that point I would expect that backup was called and, once they had arrived, they blocked off the highway and then tried to talk him down.

As for non-lethal takedown, it depends on a lot of factors. I see other comments (as I knew I would) asking why they didn't use a Taser. People somehow have this idea that a Taser is 100% reliable and works in every situation. That is not the case. From the images I've seen, dude was wearing a heavy sweatshirt. It's very, very unlikely a Taser would have worked. Both probes must make contact with flesh for it to engage. If one or both are hung up in the fabric, it won't work.

They may have been able to use other non-lethal methods, always assuming they had them on scene. Beanbag shotguns, 40-mike-mike (basically a grenade launcher that shoots a bigass foam slug), pepperball gun... those are all options, assuming someone on scene has one in his/her patrol car. Not all agencies even have any/all of those, either.

Based on the report, he pulled an object out of his pocket was mistaken for a gun. I don't know how reasonable that is since they haven't said what exactly the object was. When in a standoff with cops, it's generally inadvisable to do things like that. That's why I think this was suicide by cop.

Let the investigation show what it shows, and we go from there. But as I've said before, I'm not going to immediately start screaming "bLuE mAn BaD" every time a cop shoots someone.

[USALiberal]

17. Why not taser him? Nt

[Jedi Guy]

21. Because Tasers aren't magic. They're not phasers from Star Trek.

Both probes have to make contact with flesh for it to work. If either or both fail to do so, the Taser does absolutely nothing. Dude was wearing a heavy hoodie or sweatshirt, so the only exposed skin was his face and hands, from the images I've seen. I've seen videos where Tasers hit with both probes and still do nothing, so they're not 100% reliable in the best of situations.

Also, a Taser's optimal range is about 10 feet, so not a good choice when you know the guy has a lethal weapon and your chances of actually hitting him with both probes are around zero. That's essentially an impossible shot, since Tasers aren't all that accurate to begin with.

There are other non-lethal options, as in my post #20. But that always assumes that someone on scene (or the agency in general) even had them. They might have had an officer on the way with one of those options, but it became moot when he pulled whatever-it-was-object from his pocket. I really don't know since none of the reports have said anything about that.

[USALiberal]

23. Thank you for the good info I appreciate it. Nt

[ecstatic]

18. If you believe that I have a bridge for sale

Pulled out a shiny cylindrical object? How convenient. They shoot first, rationalize it later.

[Jedi Guy]

22. I have no reason to disbelieve it at this point, either.

The guy was clearly agitated and having some kind of mental episode, and suicide by cop happens, unfortunately. There were 9+ officers on scene, so assuming all of them had bodycams on and recording (plus the dashcams in the squad cars), there will be plenty of angles of the incident. Let the investigation show what it shows, and it goes from there.

If the officers are lying and he indeed never went for any sort of object in his pocket, then I'm all for them facing charges. If they're telling the truth and he did go for an object in his pocket, then they had to make a snap decision in an instant based on what they knew in that instant. That's how it is in police work, and SCOTUS recognized that many years ago.

[USALiberal]

19. Taser him about 10 minutes earlier! Nt

[SharonClark]

4. Local news said he had a box cutter and was agitated.

So they mowed him down in a hail of bullets. It won’t bring her husband back, but I hope she gets a good lawyer and sues every trigger-happy LEO involved.

[Jedi Guy]

14. If that's what the local news reported, that is not accurate since it's not the entire story.

The way you present it makes it sound as if he pulled a box cutter and they immediately shot him, which isn't what happened. He pulled the box cutter on the first trooper to arrive, at which point they blocked traffic and a 30-minute standoff ensued. At the end of that time, he pulled a "shiny cylindrical object" from his pocket and the cops subsequently shot him.

Given his reported state of agitation and the sequence of events, it looks a lot like suicide by cop rather than trigger-happy LEOs mowing him down because he pulled a box cutter.

[SunImp]

5. Too many rotten apples

[Ziggysmom]

6. Cops scare the hell out of me. Nt

[greenjar_01]

7. "she was baffled that he was on the highway Thursday."

A little late for one's first schizophrenic episode.

Something here is hinky.

[Jedi Guy]

10. Looks a lot like suicide by cop.

CNN reported that one state trooper made contact with him to try to get him off the highway before he pulled a box cutter. They stopped traffic and were talking to him for half an hour when he pulled a "shiny cylindrical object" from his right pocket, at which point the cops opened fire. It was later confirmed not to be a gun, but the CNN article didn't say what it actually ended up being. Generally not a good idea when facing off with eight cops who have their guns drawn, so certainly seems like suicide by cop based on what we know now.

Perhaps more details about his state of mind will become apparent as the investigation progresses and it's revealed what he said to them, if anything, during that 30 minute standoff. Given how many officers were on scene and how they were positioned, there should be plenty of bodycam footage to show how the whole thing went down.