Body-Cam Footage Shows Nonfatal Police Shooting

Body-worn camera footage released by the Metro Nashville Police Department this week shows the nonfatal police shooting that occurred on Monday after a school resource officer fired at a man apparently reaching for a gun in his car. 

Nine people have been shot by police in Nashville this year, six of them fatally. 

In a statement to media, the MNPD said School Resource Officer Byron Boelter, who is Black, had just left Hunters Lane High School for the day when he came upon a two-car crash on Dickerson Pike around 2:30 p.m. Police say 20-year-old Rod Reed, who is also Black, had been "driving erratically when he struck a Nissan Altima." 

In the body-cam footage of the incident (which you can view below), Boelter can be seen approaching the Altima, where paramedics are removing a teenage girl from the car, before going over to Reed's Camaro. Standing on the driver's side, with Reed on the passenger's side, Boelter says, "Hey, just leave that stuff in there man, go ahead and go." Reed approaches the car again and reaches in through the passenger's side door, at which point Boelter draws his gun and fires, striking Reed in the leg less than a minute after exiting his police cruiser.  

Boelter yells at Reed to stay down. At one point Reed, who is yelling in pain, says, "I'm sorry." 

Later, although no one had yet come over to check on Reed's condition, Boelter asks him where the gun is and then reassures him, saying, "It's OK buddy." 

When Boelter comes over to Reed, he asks where the young man is hit and asks again where the gun is. 

"Why'd you reach for it, kid?" Boelter asks.

"I was trying to get it out the car, sir," Reed says.

Boelter has been an officer for 16 years, and the department says he is "on routine administrative assignment" while the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation looks into the incident. Citing police records, WPLN reports that Boelter was "suspended three days in 2016 for violating the use-of-force policy."

Reed was arrested on federal gun and drug charges following his release from the hospital.