FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Franklin Police have released the body-cam video from Monday night's deadly police shooting in Cool Springs.
In the video, viewers can see officers back away down an apartment hallway seconds before a suicidal man hiding behind a pillow pointed a gun at them.
Franklin officials said the incident started when a woman called 911 saying her ex-boyfriend had a gun and was suicidal. When officers arrived to do a welfare check, the man later identified as Steven Lawrence Tropia, 37, refused to come out of his apartment. Eventually, he opened the door and pointed a gun at the three officers.
"I know you're upset but I want you to be safe," officer Brigham Van Hook said in the video.
"You don't care," Tropia said.
You can hear sirens wailing in the background during this exchange.
Police repeatedly ask Tropia if he was still there when he went silent behind the closed door. Eventually, you can hear the door open and Tropia begins to walk out. You can hear officers remind him to put down his gun. Earlier, Tropia told the officers he didn't care if he lived or died.
"He's got the gun, he's got the gun," officers exclaimed in the body cam video.
"Steven, put the gun down," Van Hook said.
"Don't do it," another officer said.
Tropia was then shot by one of the officers. They quickly called for an ambulance and began rendering aid.
Franklin Police Chief Deborah Faulkner said officers had talked to him 15 minutes through the door before the shooting.
"Seeing the gun pointed at him, they responded in self-defense," Faulkner said.
Van Hook is now on routine administrative leave. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is handling the case. This is the first deadly shooting involving a police officer in Franklin in more than a decade.
