Police Release Footage of What They Say Is a Fleeing Man's 'Self-Inflicted' Fatal Shooting

Update (Feb. 12): The MNPD said on Friday morning that ballistic testing and an autopsy have been completed. 

From their release: 

Ballistic testing completed this morning in regard to Wednesday’s self-inflicted gunshot death of Markquett Martin off Claiborne Street shows that the sole shell casing recovered from the scene was fired by the semi-automatic pistol Martin was carrying. Impact testing revealed that the gun would not fire without the trigger being pulled.

During an autopsy examination on Thursday, the Medical Examiner found that Martin died from a single gunshot that entered the right side of his head, traveled from right to left, and exited.

Original post: The Metro Nashville Police Department released video footage Wednesday night of what they say was the "self-inflicted" fatal shooting of a 21-year-old Black man named Markquett Martin. Martin died of a gunshot to the head Wednesday afternoon while he was running from officers in the J.C. Napier Homes. 

In the video, Martin can be seen running from officers at the top of the frame before falling down. In a release Wednesday night, the MNPD emphasized that "the MDHA video system does not record continuously," adding that "the 'freezes' in the video are from the system itself."

In the initial release on the shooting, the MNPD says that a resident "flagged down a Hermitage Precinct community engagement officer to report that a man matching Martin’s description was armed with a gun." The department says, "There had been reports of shots fired in that immediate area during the past few days."

"When two officers approached Martin to speak with him, he ran from them," the department says in the release. "The officers gave chase, during which Martin fell and dropped a gun. He picked it up and continued running. After making his way through a field, Martin’s gun discharged, possibly accidentally. No police officers fired their weapons or used any force."

In a subsequent release that included the video footage, police say Martin was carrying a .40 caliber pistol with an extended magazine. An autopsy is pending. 

The shooting, and the MNPD's version of events, quickly prompted skepticism among some Nashvillians, who have seen a number of fatal police shootings in recent years. Those include the high-profile shootings of Jocques Clemmons in 2016 and Daniel Hambrick in 2017, both Black men who were shot by white officers. The Hambrick shooting led to the indictment of Officer Andrew Delke on a first-degree murder charge. He is still awaiting trial. More recently, Officer Wesley McClelland shot and injured a robbery suspect during an attempted arrest last month. WPLN reports McClelland has a history of using force. 

In the case of Martin's fatal shooting this week, police say no officers fired their weapons. But Martin's anguished parents have already expressed their doubt about the MNPD's version of events. 

During an interview on The Kenny Smoov Morning Show Thursday morning, Martin's father said he hadn’t spoken to the police, “and to be honest with you, I’d really rather not talk to them until I have a lawyer with us.”

Martin's mother described her son as "a bright young man."

“He’s just one of those kids, he was raised right in the church, but along the way, you know, he lost himself," she said. "That’s something a lot of people deal with. He never meant any harm to anybody.”

She said Martin had siblings as well as a child of his own — one baby with another one on the way. 

“My main focus right now is making sure that the person who shot him is held accountable," Martin's mother said. "And regardless of what they may say about his background or whatever, they did not have the right to shoot my son in the back of his head.”

As she fought back emotion, she responded to follow-up questions about how and where her son was shot. 

“I haven’t really talked to anybody, all I know is what I seen when I went to identify my son and no mother should have to see that,” she said, adding, “I didn’t see any wounds in the front. But, you know, nobody said anything, nobody told me anything.”

The MNPD says detectives are continuing to investigate the shooting. An agreement between the MNPD and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation dictates that the TBI investigate all shootings by Nashville police officers. This case, though — in which the MNPD says the shooting was self-inflicted and no officers fired their weapons — appears to fall outside of that agreement. A TBI spokesperson tells the Scene, "We have not received a request to investigate this incident."