MNPD Releases Footage of Fatal Friday Night Police Shooting

The Metro Nashville Police Department has released footage of an officer fatally shooting a man on Clarksville Pike in Bordeaux around midnight on Friday.

The footage — which you can watch here and via the embed below — is taken from the body camera of Officer Christopher Royer, who can be seen firing three shots at a man holding a kitchen knife and running toward the officer. Police say the as-yet-unidentified man was transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

At a press conference on Saturday morning, MNPD spokesman Don Aaron said the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Davidson County district attorney’s office will investigate and analyze Friday night’s incident. Royer, a white man who has been with the department for four years, has been placed on administrative leave per department policy. The Metro Nashville Community Oversight board has also announced its plans to investigate the shooting.

Aaron told reporters the incident occurred after Royer stopped a white Mercedes with plates that did not match the vehicle description on file. While the driver of the vehicle reportedly complied, the passenger exited the vehicle wielding “two large butcher knives,” Aaron said. The man can be seen briefly entering the driver’s side of Royer’s police car before exiting and ultimately running toward the officer.

“He did everything he could, I felt,” said MNPD Chief John Drake at Saturday’s press conference of Royer’s actions. “He retreated, he asked the individual to drop the weapon several times. [The individual] continued charging at him, and he was left with no choice.”

The shooting occurred not long after activists kicked off a “24 Hour Display of Power” event. The event, organized by Black Lives Matter Nashville in response to multiple violent incidents that have taken place recently in Nashville, commenced Friday at 10 p.m. at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church — about a mile-and-a-half from where the shooting took place. The “24 Hour Display of Power” event continued Saturday with a rally and march, followed by a virtual concert presented via Zoom.

Friday night’s incident is the latest in a series of deadly shootings that have taken place in Nashville in recent weeks and months — including a March incident during which a police officer shot and killed a 31-year-old woman on Brick Church Pike.

Footage from Friday night’s event and MNPD’s Saturday press conference can be seen below. Warning: The footage is graphic.