A man with a sword was shot by Metro Nashville police before a mental health negotiation team was in place to try to intervene, police spokesman Don Aaron said.
"The negotiator team was in the process of arriving when the shooting occurred," Aaron wrote.
Jason William Sexton, 54, was shot and killed as he held a sword outside his Hyundai on Cheshire Drive in Nashville on Aug. 29. SWAT officer Joshua Baney, who fired the fatal shot, was "decommissioned" in the hours after the shooting, meaning he has lost all his police authority.
Sexton was shot by Baneyafter Sexton threatened a store clerk who had confronted him about paying for a cup of coffee.
"Patrol officers talked with Sexton off and on for more than hour attempting to persuade him to surrender,"
the MNPD release stated.
SWAT officers were eventually called to the scene and were developing a plan to get Sexton into custody. Baney fired the shots from a distance while a sword-wielding Sexton stood outside his Hyundai with an unidentified woman in the car, police state.
Aaron said more than 700 MNPD officers (including SWAT) have received Crisis Intervention Training. He said the Partners in Care program pairs an officer with a clinician from the Mental Health Co-Op on weekdays, and the Mental Health Co-Op provides the negotiators.
The shooting of Jason Sexton took place on a Saturday.
Nashville police released body camera footage and 911 calls Aug. 29.
Jason Sexton's social media posts and criminal record
The circumstances that led to the shooting to be much deeper than a fight over a cup of coffee.
Sexton left dozens of Instagram posts of his last movements, which look like a three-day binge of arguing with gas station store attendants, fast driving to the thumping beat of music, threats of violence and posting a running racist monologue.
"The world is cruel and unforgiving," he says into the camera. "So welcome to my reality. Everybody dies."
There is a confrontation posted Aug. 28 in the Twice Daily store on Charlotte Avenue in which Sexton, who is white, shouts racial epithets at a Black woman mopping the floor. She grabs what looks like a small club, takes off her shoes and squares off as if to fight.
"If you play with me, I'm going to drop you in the store," she says.
The Tennessean spoke to employees at the store on Aug. 30, but they said they were not allowed to speak about the incident.
"I'm getting ready to post a video of all hell breaking loose," Sexton says to the camera after the incident in the store. "This guy assaulted me over a cup of coffee this morning."
Later, video posted on Aug. 29 shows Sexton unsheathing a sword as he approaches the same Twice Daily store. The video is titled "The return of the Jedi." It shows the store doors closing in front of him. Sexton knocks over a trash can, but he can't get in the store.
In screenshots Sexton posted Aug. 26 on his Instagram account, people expressed concern to him in messages.
"Maybe someone will help you," one person wrote to Sexton. "You're not ok."
Another person wrote, "I'm literally just worried. I care. I don't understand the anger. I only wanna know you are safe."
Jason Sexton has a criminal history in Nashville stretching back to 2008.
In his running video commentary, he says he has been to jail 25 times in 18 years.
Davidson County Court records show he has been arrested several times on drug charges, tampering with evidence and resisting arrest. There are other charges for assault, disorderly conduct, burglary and domestic violence.
Most recently, on July 22, 2026, he was charged with assault and released on a $2,000 bond.
What happens next for Officer Joshua Baney?
Metro Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron said Baney will remain decommissioned while the shooting is investigated.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will conduct the probe on behalf of District Attorney General Glenn Funk, Aaron said, and the MNPD will conduct a "separate but parallel" administrative investigation.
Baney has not been fired. "He remains an employee and is on administrative assignment," Aaron wrote in an email to The Tennessean.
Who is Joshua Baney?
According to Metro Nashville Police Department, Joshua Baney is a 12-year-old MNPD veteran, and he was identified as a SWAT member Aug. 29.
MNPD said Baney has been decommissioned and relieved of all police authority while a probe by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation unfolds.
What happened between Jason Sexton and MNPD?
According to Metro Nashville police, officers had been trying to arrest Sexton since Aug. 28 due to outstanding warrants for order of protection violations and criminal trespassing.
MNPD officials said officers first learned Sexton was armed with a sword when they were sent to a Shell market at 2112 Charlotte Avenue around 8 a.m. Saturday. Police learned of a dispute over a coffee payment between Sexton and the clerk. The clerk told police that Sexton drove away, returned with a full-size sword, got out of the car and yelled "come outside now, I'll kill you." Police said the clerk locked the doors before Sexton could enter the store.
A felony aggravated assault warrant was then issued against Sexton.
Police spotted Sexton's Hyundai at a car wash along Dickerson Pike and began tracking him, according to the statement, until he came to a stop on Cheshire Drive with MNPD vehicles behind him on the ground.
SWAT officers were eventually called to the scene and were developing a plan to get Sexton into custody.
"Baney ... was initially directed to assist in blocking Sexton’s vehicle with his police truck," MNPD said. "He started to do that, got out, took up a position at the rear of a patrol vehicle, and fired on Sexton three times as he held the sword."
Sexton was taken to to Skyline Medical Center, where he later died, police said. The woman in the car was unharmed.
Note: This video contains content that may be upsetting to some viewers.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Fatal Nashville police shooting happened before mental health team arrived
