After Metro Nashville Police SWAT Officer Joshua Baney fired three shots at a sword-wielding Jason William Sexton, killing him, the department decommissioned the 12-year veteran and released his body camera footage.
It's a 22-second video.
Police surrounded Sexton outside his Hyundai sedan on Cheshire Drive after a convenience store clerk reported a clash with him over payment for a cup of coffee. In the backseat was a 26-year-old woman.
Patrol officers spoke with Sexton for more than an hour trying to persuade him to surrender. SWAT officers were called to the scene and started to "develop a plan of action" when Baney shot Sexton. He was taken to Skyline Medical Center, where he died.
health team arrived
What the body camera footage of Jason Sexton's shooting shows
Nashville Police often release body camera footage after an officer shoots and kills someone. Public video footage of this shooting is one of the shortest in recent history.
The video opens with Baney in his patrol vehicle. Another officer is visible in the truck's driver's side mirror.
"Hold on a second," Baney is heard saying, as he puts the vehicle in park and opens the door.
There are several officers standing outside of the truck in tactical gear wearing heavy duty vests and helmets with rifles in their hands.
"Watch out," Baney says as he taps another officer on the arm, walking around him. He then raises his rifle.
Sexton is standing between the open driver's side door and the rest of the car. He doesn't advance toward the officers.
A second later, the video blurs Sexton right before Baney fires a shot. The blurred figure falls to the ground and an object clatters to the ground.
Baney fires two more shots.
Everyone pauses, before an officer called on others to "move." Baney and another officer start to move in on Sexton. That's when the video cuts off.
Note: This video contains content that may be upsetting to some viewers.
Jason Sexton's social media history shows threats, racial slurs
Sexton left a bizarre social media history. The last several days showed dozens of Instagram posts chronicling arguments with gas station clerks, threats of violence and a running racist monologue in which he uses racial slurs.
"The world is cruel and unforgiving," he says into the camera. "So welcome to my reality. Everybody dies."
In a video the day before the fatal shooting, Sexton went to a gas station on Charlotte Avenue and shouted racial slurs at a clerk mopping the floor. She armed herself.
"If you play with me, I'm going to drop you in the store," she said in the video.
He then had another interaction at the same store the day of the shooting.
"I'm getting ready to post a video of all hell breaking loose," Sexton said to the camera after the Aug. 29 incident. "This guy assaulted me over a cup of coffee this morning."
In another video, Sexton unsheathed a sword and approached the same store. The clerk locked the doors before Sexton could enter the store.
"The clerk reported Sexton yelled, 'Come outside now, I’ll kill you,'" police said in a statement.
A magistrate issued a felony aggravated assault warrant against Sexton.
A relative of Sexton's called 911 fearing that he was a danger to others.
"She cited recently posted Instagram videos in which he displayed the sword," police said. "A police helicopter spotted Sexton’s Hyundai sedan at a carwash on Dickerson Pike and then monitored his driving from the air as he headed onto Bell Grimes Lane and then turned onto Cheshire Drive."
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville Police release video of officer shooting sword-wielding man
