NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Captain Joe Purvis understands the reality of being involved in a shooting that involves law enforcement, because this year, he was involved with one.
"Being shot at is pretty traumatic no matter how seriously you’re injured," he said. Purvis works for the Giles County Sheriff's Office. "I was there."
A Giles County Sheriff's deputy was shot during a standoff at a house, and the man was later charged with four counts of attempted murder.
Sheriff Kyle Helton told NewsChannel 5 in May when it happened that the incident occurred as officials responded to a home off Fairview Road. The deputy, who is believed to have been wearing a bullet-proof vest, was shot in the chest and brought to a nearby hospital.
Purvis said the deputy who was shot had previously filed his notice to do something different with his life only a couple of weeks before the shooting. That deputy has since left the department.
The incident in Giles County isn't isolated in Tennessee. This year, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has been called to 48 shootings involving Tennessee police. Those shootings have happened as far east as Johnson County and extend westward to Memphis.
Of the counties NewsChannel 5 covers, 17 shootings occurred within the NewsChannel 5 viewing area.
From that, NewsChannel 5 contacted police, sheriff and district attorney offices in those counties to see if officers returned to duty since those shootings. Quietly, all of those officers have returned to work after the paid administrative leave. No state policy exists to notify the public the officer has been cleared or a suspect in the incident has been charged with any crimes.
Of the 17 shootings, eight suspects died, including one of those by suicide. Most frequently, those shootings have happened in Nashville with the most recent happening in October in Antioch. All of the shootings in Nashville ended with a dead suspect.
What happens after a shooting involving Tennessee police
At the behest of a local district attorney, the TBI will come to the scene and do its investigation of what happened.
That means starting at the very beginning of the process, TBI spokeswoman Susan Niland said.
"We start the whole investigation over," she said. "We don’t rely on what those departments gather and the information may be the same. We start over not making any assumptions."
Starting from scratch means interviewing witnesses at the scene, collecting evidence, photographing materials and creating measurements. The information the TBI collects is given to a district attorney's office throughout the process, and not just at the end of the investigation. Some DAs even chime in, asking the TBI to collect or search for more specific details regarding the shootings.
TBI agents are spread geographically around Tennessee and staffed among different divisions. No one team is tasked with investigating all the police-related shootings.
"They make the determination about whether there will be charges, and at that point, that ends the process for us," Niland said. "It’s all a very cooperative effort."
What happens when it reaches the district attorney's office
Just like there is no process for telling the public officers have returned to work, there is also no one state policy in relation to police shootings and DA's offices.
However, the 21st Judicial District — which now only covers Williamson County — does have a policy on what its office does in those circumstances. The district previously spanned into other counties and then-District Attorney Kim Helper crafted a procedural process with now-District Attorney Stacey Edmonson.
That policy is being used currently, as the Franklin Police Department saw its first police shootings in more than a decade in July. The department released the body-camera footage where viewers could see officers back away down an apartment hallway seconds before a suicidal man hiding behind a pillow pointed a gun at them. There is no state policy that departments must release body-camera footage to the public, though several departments do directly after shootings.
"We would request TBI to come in and investigate when it happened in other counties, "Edmonson said. "They would do the investigation, and when the investigation was complete, they would turn it over to us. We would present it to the grand jury and make sure the grand jury saw things the way we did to make decisions. The ones we had in the other counties they found those to be justifiable shootings. I anticipate doing the same thing for what happened this summer, and that’s the policy I have been working on for years."
Edmonson said her office was waiting on TBI to finish up the report for what happened this summer before providing the case to the grand jury.
'Body cameras make it easier'
The Wilson County Sheriff's Office has only had one shooting involving an officer in 2023. The Lebanon Police Department also has had one.
LPD spokesman Zach Patton said body cameras have made it easier for public transparency. Only seven states mandate every law enforcement department have officers wearing body cameras. Tennessee is not one of them, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
With body cameras and things, it helps the process of the investigation," Patton said. "Previously, you would either have to go off dash camera or if there was security footage. Thankfully with body cameras that's changed things."
Captain Scott Moore said his department got outfitted with cameras in April. He said he could see that helping his department, especially with complicated cases.
He said one definitely came to mind: a suicidal man opening the door with what they later learned was an empty AR-15.
"But no one knew that in the moment," Moore said. "I wish everyone could go through a simulation of what it's like to do this, where they are the ones responsible for acknowledging the threat and responding to that. You can't gamble your life and everyone else's when you see someone pointing a gun at you."
