Courthouse Security Officer Shoots, Kills Man Who Pulled Knife after His Pistol Failed at Screening Checkpoint
Key Takeaways
- A security officer at the Fred D. Thompson Federal Building and Courthouse in Nashville shot and killed a man at the public screening checkpoint.
- The attacker walked up to the entrance, pulled the trigger on a pistol that failed to fire, then drew a knife and lunged at the screening area.
- The security officer fired several shots, and the man was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
- The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is leading the investigation, with the ATF and other federal partners assisting.
- Neither the security officer nor the attacker has been publicly identified, and no motive has been released.
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
NASHVILLE, TN — A security officer at the Fred D. Thompson Federal Building and Courthouse shot and killed a man who tried to fire a pistol at the public screening checkpoint and then came at the entrance with a knife when the gun would not fire, according to police and federal officials.
The man, described only as being in his 40s, walked up to the public security entrance of the downtown courthouse with a pistol and pulled the trigger, as reported by Conservative Advocacy News. The weapon did not fire. He pulled a knife. He lunged at the screening area. The security officer fired several shots. The man was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“The security individual fired on the armed individual,” Don Aaron, director of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department media relations office, said at the scene.
Acting U.S. Attorney Robert E. McGuire described the scramble and fear among staff and visitors inside the courthouse as it unfolded.
The sequence is the lesson. The attacker’s pistol failed, and that could have ended it. Instead he went to a knife and closed the distance. The officer read that correctly and did not wait to find out whether the pistol would work on the second try. That is mindset. The threat is the person, not the tool in his hand, and when the tool changes, the threat does not go away.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is leading the investigation, with the ATF and other federal partners assisting. At a briefing, officials said the matter remains under investigation and that they are working to gather as many facts and as much evidence as they can, adding that someone bringing a firearm into a federal courthouse “is not acceptable.”
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Neither the security officer nor the man he shot has been publicly identified, and officials have not said which agency or contractor employed the officer. No motive has been released, and no determination on the shooting has been announced.
A pistol that would not fire, a knife, and a lunge at the front door of a federal courthouse. The officer behind that checkpoint had seconds, and the accounts so far describe him stopping the man before he got any farther.
Read the original story: Courthouse Security Officer Shoots, Kills Man Who Pulled Knife after His Pistol Failed at Screening Checkpoint