Police Killing of Mark Capps Curiously Ignored by Press & Justice Dept.
On Wednesday, March 8th, United States Attorney General Merrick Garland was in Louisville, Kentucky announcing the findings of a Department of Justice investigation into the Louisville Police Department after the officer-involved killing of Breonna Taylor on March 13th, 2020. As police officers were serving a warrant at the residence Breonna Taylor was at, her boyfriend thought the police officers were intruders, and fired a warning shot. That shot hit one of the officers in the leg, and they returned fire, ultimately firing 32 shots. The boyfriend was unhurt, but EMT Breonna Taylor was killed.
The death of Breonna Taylor was second only to the killing of George Floyd to stimulating the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020. Fellow Kentucky resident Tyler Childers mentioned Breonna Taylor by name in a video accompanying his Grammy-nominated album Long Violent History released in September of 2020. Also as part of the press conference in Louisville, it was revealed that the Memphis Police Department is also under investigation by the Justice Department after five Black police officers beat and killed motorist Tyre Nichols on January 7th stemming from a traffic stop.
When these officer-involved killings occur, they immediately dominate the news cycle nationally, let alone locally, and for good reasons. It is the job of the public, and the press as the fourth estate to scrutinize law enforcement, and push for accountability. Not every officer-involved beating, shooting, or killing is unjustified, and as public scrutiny has dramatically increased for these incidents, it has also become difficult for law enforcement to do their jobs, while a few bad actors can tarnish the reputation of the entire law enforcement profession—a profession that remains an essential part of society.
Two days before the the killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, 200 miles away in Nashville, four-time Grammy-winning engineer Mark Capps was killed by Metro Nashville SWAT Officers as they were conducting what was described as a “covert operation” to place an explosive device on the front door of Capps’ residence on Summit Run Place in the Hermitage neighborhood in Nashville. Though the 54-year-old Mark Capps had no prior criminal background and police had never been called to the residence before, the initial accusations that led police to the home were quite disturbing.
According to Metro Nashville Public Affairs Director Don Aaron, the incident began when Mark Capps allegedly went on a tirade at his home in Nashville around 3 a.m. on January 5th, throwing things in the house and ultimately holding both his 60-year-old wife and 23-year-old stepdaughter at gunpoint, allegedly telling them that if they tried to call anyone or flee the home, he would kill them. When Capps eventually fell asleep around sunup, the two women were said to have escaped with their pets to the Hermitage police precinct where they explained to police what happened.
Four total warrants were issued for Mark Capps, two for aggravated assault and two for kidnapping, and a request for a protection order was also processed. It was due to the concern for the firearm Capps had allegedly used to threaten the two women and the presence of other firearms at the residence that Metro Nashville Police chose to use the SWAT team to serve the warrants.
But when police arrived at the residence of Mark Capps in The Hermitage, they did not announce their presence. They did not make an attempt to service the warrants that had been issued. They did not attempt to set up a direct line of communication with Capps and request he give himself up. Instead, the first action Metro Nashville SWAT Officers took was to perform the “covert operation” where three officers tried to sneak onto the front porch of the home in broad daylight, and install an explosive device on the front door to either blow the front door, or to act as a diversionary device if Capps ultimately barricaded himself in the home.
While the three officers were on the front porch as part of the operation, Mark Capps—who had video surveillance cameras on the residence and may have noticed the officers naturally—came to the front door, allegedly holding a revolver. Officer Ashley Kendall Coon barked at Capps to drop the weapon, but less than a second after giving the order—and having never announced their presence as law enforcement—opened fire with an assault rife, shooting three or four rapid shots, killing Mark Capps.
In a press conference after the incident, Metro Nashville’s Don Aaron said that Mark Capps had brandished the gun at the officers, and released body camera footage that captured the incident. However, in the body camera footage, it’s unclear if Mark Capps is holding a gun, or if he brandished it at anyone. Metro Nashville Police also released a picture of the gun Mark Capps allegedly brandished, but the fact that it is lodged underneath a rug and a parcel under a table with no blood on it raises serious questions of how the gun would ultimately end up in that location if it had been in the hand of Mark Capps moments before, and as he was dying, or dead.
Shortly after the incident, Metro Nashville police convened the local media on the scene. In fact, the media had been notified about the incident even before the Nashville Community Oversight Board who investigates police matters had been notified. When Oversight Board Director Jill Fitcheard and other members of the board arrived, Fitcheard says, “The local news media was already set up, the TBI (Tennessee Board of Investigations) was there, the FOP attorneys (Fraternal Order of Police) were there, the FOP investigators were there. It was a full scene. All of these people are on the scene prior to us arriving, and already set up,” she said at a January 25th meeting.
The delay in notification of the Community Oversight Board even after the media was alerted was one of numerous concerns the oversight board raised. Board member Walter Holloway—a retired Metro police officer with over three decades of experience—characterized the delay in notifying the Community Oversight Board about the killing by saying, “Sounds like you need to clean up something before you get there,” implying that the delay in notifying the board was intentional by Metro Nashville Police.
Don Aaron convened a press conference where he presented the case for the killing of Mark Capps from the perspective of the Metro Nashville Police Department, including that Mark Capps possessed and brandished a gun at the officers. Aaron also mentioned that as is Metro Nashville policy, because it was a police-involved killing, the investigation was turned over to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations.
But what Don Aaron did not mention is that when the alleged kidnapping and threats occurred in the home of Mark Capps, there had been a TBI police officer in the home as well. Police also failed to mention that the TBI Officer had left the home at the time the alleged victims were told they couldn’t leave or they would be killed, and that when the TBI officer left, he did not report the incident either to local police, or to TBI superiors once he arrived at work at TBI Headquarters in Nashville.
Saving Country Music was able to confirm through the TBI on January 18th that TBI Officer Noah Silva was in the home at the time of the alleged kidnapping.
“We can confirm an off-duty TBI police officer (whose primary job is to provide security at TBI offices) was at the home as a guest of the step-daughter referenced in media reports the night prior to Friday afternoon’s shooting,” said TBI spokesperson Susan Niland. “He left the home before the two women reported their concerns to Metro Police. The TBI notified District Attorney General Glenn Funk of this information when it surfaced and he requested we remain in an investigative capacity in this ongoing case.”
The presence of a TBI Officer in the home not only undercuts the entire story that Metro Nashville Public Affairs Director Don Aaron and Metro Nashville Police tell of the incident, it calls into question the objectivity of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations to conduct an unbiased inquiry into the matter when it involves one of their own officers who strangely did not report the incident himself.
In the officer-involved killing of Breonna Taylor, the United States Justice Department got involved. In the officer-involved killing of Tyre Nichols two days after Mark Capps and also in Tennessee, the United States Justice Department got involved. On January 26th—19 days after the Tyre Nichols killing—the five officers involved were fired from the police force, charged with murder, kidnapping, and aggravated assault, while 13 other officers involved were also reprimanded.
Over two months after the killing of Mark Capps, we don’t even have any preliminary findings from the TBI investigation, let alone any disciplinary action taken against anyone involved. Metro Nashville and the TBI also continue to refuse to release body camera footage from the two other SWAT Officers involved in the shooting—Officers Timothy Brewer and Jason Rader. Saving Country Music was told it would take six months to process any requests for further body camera footage, and those requests can still be denied if the incident remains under investigation.
There is a very strong case that the civil rights of Mark Capps were violated in the incident, and that Metro Nashville did not follow Tennessee state law. When it comes to the arrest of individuals and the serving of warrants, Tennessee law clearly states:
40-7-106. Notice of authority and grounds for arrest — Telephone call.
(a) When arresting a person, the officer SHALL inform the person of the officer’s authority AND the cause of the arrest, AND exhibit the warrant if the officer has one, EXCEPT when the person is in the ACTUAL COMMISSION of the offense OR is pursued immediately after an escape.
40-7-108. Resistance to officer.
(a) A law enforcement officer, after giving notice of the officer’s identity as an officer, may use or threaten to use force that is reasonably necessary to accomplish the arrest of an individual suspected of a criminal act who resists or flees from the arrest.
(b) Notwithstanding subsection (a), the officer may use DEADLY FORCE to effect an arrest ONLY IF ALL other reasonable means of apprehension have been exhausted OR are unavailable, AND where feasible, the officer has given notice of the officer’s identity as an officer AND given a warning that deadly force may be used unless resistance or flight ceases, AND:
(1) The officer has probable cause to believe the individual to be arrested has committed a felony involving the infliction or threatened infliction of serious bodily injury; or
(2) The officer has probable cause to believe that the individual to be arrested poses a threat of serious bodily injury, either to the officer or to others unless immediately apprehended.
40-7-107. Authority of officer to break in.
To make an arrest, either WITH or without a warrant, the officer may break open any outer or inner door or window of a dwelling house if, AFTER notice of the officer’s office, authority and purpose, the officer is refused admittance.
Metro Nashville Police have not indicated that any phone call was placed to Mark Capps. Officers did not inform Mark Capps of their authority, or the cause for his arrest when they entered his porch, and he was not in the actual commission of the crime at the time. The officers never gave notice of their identity before using deadly force, did not give warning that deadly force may be used, and all other means of reasonable apprehension had not been exhausted at the time of the shooting.
Why were the officers ordered onto the front porch of the Mark Capps home in the first place to install an explosive device, putting them in harm’s way if they believed Capps was a physical threat? Whomever ordered the “covert operation” put both Mark Capps, and the police officers in peril, especially if they knew surveillance cameras were present on the property. Why weren’t close friends or family members of Mark Capps utilized to compel him to turn himself in? Why weren’t mental health professionals or negotiators involved?
Meanwhile, not only has the killing of Mark Capps not raised any major blip in the national media, it’s not even being actively covered by the local media in Nashville, possibly in part because Metro Nashville portrayed the incident initially as such an open and shut case. Since the initial reports about the incident, Nashville NPR affiliate WPLN reported on the the personnel file of the shooting officer Kendall Coon, including how the officer had been suspended eight times during the first five years of his tenure on the force. But they did not mention the revelation of the presence of the TBI Officer. A similar report from Channel 5 in Nashville only mentions the TBI Officer as a footnote.
The presence of a TBI Officer in the Mark Capps home should have been a bombshell in the incident and national news, but it was only reported in-depth by an Austin, TX-based country music website (Saving Country Music). Even country music media seems to be completely uninterested in the incident, despite Mark Capps having been a prominent member of the country music community, and despite many country media members championing criminal justice reform and police accountability during the Black Lives Matter protests.
Mark Capps was a prolific studio engineer with engineering credits tracing back to 1991. Alabama, The [Dixie] Chicks, The Mavericks, Brooks & Dunn, Clay Walker, and Elizabeth Cook are some of the many artists Capps worked with in his career. Capps was also a co-winner of Grammy Awards for Best Polka Album in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Mark’s father was Jimmy Capps, who played in the Grand Ole Opry house band for decades, portrayed the guitar-playing sheriff on the RFD-TV music show Larry’s Country Diner, and was affectionately known as “The Man in Back.”
Where Tyler Childers and scores of other prominent country music artists called for justice for Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Tyre Nichols—and for criminal justice reform overall—there has been virtually no recognition of the Mark Capps incident beyond the close knit group of performers and musicians that were in Mark’s inner circle. A similar scenario transpired around country artist Randy Howard, who was killed by bounty hunters in 2015 who were serving a bench warrant for a crime he was going to be exonerated of.
On his Grammy-nominated album Long Violent History, Tyler Childers implies that if what was happening to Black people at the hands of law enforcement was happening to White individuals, a “long violent history” would ensue. In truth what is happening is the exact opposite. The killings by law enforcement of individuals in the country music community—including a 4-time Grammy winner—continue to be mostly ignored by the public, by the press, and by the United States Department of Justice. They’re being swept under the rug, just like the revolver Mark Capps allegedly brandished at police.
The incident occurred at a time when Mark Capps was said to be under great duress. Mark’s brother Jeffery Allen Capps had died two days prior to the incident, and he was said to be distraught over his brother’s death.
Every case involving police officers and the killing of citizens is different, and the case of Mark Capps presents especially difficult circumstances for both the officers involved, and the investigators looking into the matter. But what seems unquestionable is that the matter should be looked into further, and by objective, third-party entities like the press and the United States Department of Justice.
Two months after the incident, friends and family of Mark Capps are wondering if they will ever receive any answers, or since much of the media and the public seem completely uniformed or only mildly interested the subject, if it will be forgotten, as opposed to hard questions answered, individuals held accountable if necessary, and reforms brought to Nashville Metro’s procedures so that a similar incident doesn’t imperil the lives of citizens or police officers in the future.
– – – – – – –
An online petition has been set up demanding answers for the killing of Mark Capps. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigations says the investigation into the killing of Mark Capps is ongoing. Saving Country Music will continue to report on the incident.
– – – – – – – – –
March 9, 2023 @ 1:28 pm
You are framing this in an odd way. More than a 1000 people were shot by police last year in the US, and almost none of them are widely covered. Breonna Taylor and Floyd are the exception, not the rule.
March 9, 2023 @ 1:30 pm
Maybe if Capps had a lethal level of Fentanyl in his system at the time of arrest, or his wife was shooting at cops at the time of the arrest, his death would matter
March 9, 2023 @ 1:34 pm
I’m not going to argue about that but Trigger is obviously framing this as the media and liberals jump all over one shooting because they are black and ignore this shooting because the victim is white, but the reality is almost all shooting are ignored.
March 9, 2023 @ 1:57 pm
You’re missing the bigger picture here. A Tennessee Bureau of Investigations officer was involved in the initial incident. That information was initially withheld from the public. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigations is who is conducting the investigation. That is a conflict of interest. After over two months, the TBI continues to withhold all findings of that investigation, and no reprimands or recommendations have been made. There is a good case to be made that the civil rights of Mark Capps were violated. This is a classic case where the Justice Department should get involved, and the press should be asking more questions.
Do I think it would have been different if Mark Capps what Black? Yes I do. But that’s not the foundation of the framing at all. The foundation is that we have more questions than answers, and those answers have not been forthcoming from the investigating organization with a conflict of interest.
March 9, 2023 @ 2:09 pm
Also, I wish I could report on all of the 1,100 people killed by police last year, many of which were probably justified, and it was an open and shut case. That’s why a big deal was not made about it. But Mark Capps is not an open and shut case, and he is part of MY community, the country music community, so I make it my business. This is my beat.
March 9, 2023 @ 2:09 pm
I understand. It’s a good thing you are asking questions and trying to hold people accountable. Like Floyd and Taylor supporters be loud and persistent and give people a reason to talk about it.
March 10, 2023 @ 7:00 am
Just as a reference for the timelines:
At this stage following Breonna Taylor’s shooting, her boyfriend was still in jail after a bunch of men broke down his apartment door without announcing themselves as police, on what we now know was a bogus warrant, that the detective repeatedly lied to obtain.
The mass protests for Taylor didn’t start until 10 weeks later, after Floyd’s murder.
March 10, 2023 @ 8:43 am
Sure, but we’re also almost eight years removed from the death of Randy Howard. The Randy Howard and Breonna Taylor situations are eerily similar. The only difference was Randy’s death was at the hands of bonded bounty hunters. Both were killed in their beds. Both were killed for warrant action that was unwarranted. Both were killed in alleged “no knock” situations. To this day I have absolutely no idea what the TBI concluded in the Randy Howard case. That was successfully swept under the rug. What I don’t want to happen is the same to Mark Capps because the local and national media seem to have no appetite whatsoever for this story.
March 10, 2023 @ 10:10 am
Honestly, if they hadn’t gone after the boyfriend for trying to protect her, and if Floyd hadn’t been murdered on camera a few weeks later, I think the Louisville PD manages to cover the Taylor killing up, like TBI did with Howard.
March 10, 2023 @ 11:04 am
Exactly. The TBI investigation into Randy Howard strung out until public outcry and attention had been diffused. I’m not saying that the TBI didn’t do their job. But to this day, I have no idea what their findings were, and what action was taken, if anything. I am still working on securing that information.
March 10, 2023 @ 4:05 pm
The difference between this and Breonna Taylor is night and day.
March 11, 2023 @ 1:14 pm
Sorry, I love you Trig, but I have to call BS on that. This article is absolutely framed around your belief that police killings of black Americans unfairly receive outsized scrutiny. (The first three paragraphs discuss Taylor/Floyd before Capps is ever mentioned.) I am not saying that belief is wrong or even that I necessarily disagree with you. But it is so very clearly the underlying premise of the post, and something that you feel strongly about, why not just own it?
May 24, 2023 @ 7:14 pm
Yes, something isn’t right with this man’s killing. Officers are involved & sounds like a cover up. That story that wife & stepdaughter ranned to the police and gave is a lie. Something transpired at that home. This Grammy Award winning artist was caught up in a plot. This wife & Stepdaughter hands are dirty too. Just as those officers. And now it’s a whole cover up going on, with many players…. I pray the family & his friends get the answers & the justice they need for his death. It’s a sad day in this country when you can’t trust polices, prosecutors, D.A.’s Judges. That’s a nightmare it really is.
March 9, 2023 @ 2:29 pm
I disagree with your assessment of Trigger’s framing. I think he’s pointing out the lack of coverage for what appears to be a complex case. I didn’t get much of an “agenda pushing” tone to the article.
March 10, 2023 @ 7:01 am
“On his Grammy-nominated album Long Violent History, Tyler Childers implies that if what was happening to Black people at the hands of law enforcement was happening to White individuals, a “long violent history” would ensue. In truth what is happening is the exact opposite.”
I think it’s great to push for greater scrutiny and accountability in all cases, and applaud SCM for bringing specific attention to this one, but I’m not sure how someone could have read this and missed the agenda pushing tone.
March 9, 2023 @ 7:00 pm
Or if he pointed a gun at a pregnant woman’s belly.
March 10, 2023 @ 7:33 am
@Strait86 – Is the “shooting at police” remark in reference to the late Breonna Taylor and her boyfriend? I certainly hope you don’t think that the police executing a night-time no knock warrant on a suspected drug dealer’s ex-girlfriend (who had no prior drug offenses on her record) house, where said drug dealer did not live, is totally above board. I have a gun in bedroom, and if someone broke down my door at night without announcing themselves, I might very well open fire too. And I would be absolutely justified in doing so.
March 12, 2023 @ 4:18 am
Y’all still pushing that shit about drugs with George Floyd when it say asphyxiation. Fact that it went to trial and was proven to be asphyxiation is so wild that you racist still believe the fantasy of the idiots that tell you what to think on television and on the Internet and I bet you call other people sheep will be in spoonfed, what to believe. And about Taylor, they were illegally enforcing a warrant that they made up evidence for. It had nothing to do with him shooting. They never should’ve been there in the first place. The racism is so spicy.
March 12, 2023 @ 11:00 am
Dr. Andrew Baker, the chief medical examiner for Hennepin County, ruled that Mr. Floyd’s death was caused by “Cardiopulmonary Arrest Complicating Law Enforcement Subdual, Restrain, and Neck Compression”. He did not attribute Mr. Floyd’s to asphyxiation. He did, however, rule his manner of death a homicide.
Other Contributing Conditions noted by Dr. Baker in the Death Certificate were “Arteriosclerotic And Hypertensive Heart Disease; Fentanyl Intoxication; Recent Methamphetamine Use”
Independent medical examiners hired by the Floyd family attributed his death to asphyxiation.
March 12, 2023 @ 11:47 am
What’s so “spicy” is your ignorance of the fact that Ms. Taylor was riding around in her rent a car, with a deceased body stuffed into the trunk.
Bet you a penny that the deceased’s family would love to know how the deceased was
a) murdered.
b) and, why the body was stuffed into the trunk of the car she was driving.
March 12, 2023 @ 12:56 pm
That is false. Fernandez Bowman was found dead in a rental car trunk in 2016 with Taylor’s then-boyfriend Jamarcus Glover shot eight times in the driver’s seat. Breonna Taylor had rented the car for her boyfriend, and she was found to have no involvement in either murder.
Even if Breonna Taylor was wanted under suspicion for the murders four years previous, gunning her down in her bed four years later when police were trying to apprehend a completely different person on a warrant that it has been found police lied to obtain would not be the way to hand down justice. Your anecdote of “dead body in the rental car truck” is the perfect example of how circumstances get twisted to justify otherwise heinous actions. Police didn’t come to Breonna Taylor’s house that night to kill her in her sleep for a 4 year old murder. And even if they did, it still would not be justified. That would be even worse than what actually happened, which was inadvertent. If you think Breonna Taylor was guilty of something with the rental car, bring her to justice to face those charges. Saying, “Eh, she had it coming” is extremely presumptive and callous.
March 12, 2023 @ 2:50 pm
“Saying, “Eh, she had it coming” is extremely presumptive and callous.”
You are putting words in my mouth. Did not say “Eh, she had it coming”.
You know better than to assume thoughts.
In the meantime, you & i must be reading two entirely different reports, or using two, three, or four, entirely different sources.
Again, in the meantime, might want to concentrate your research and accountability on the police officer assigned to the TBI office.
Noah Silva, is it?
You and Barracuda62 seem to have inside information that is was officer Noah Silva, who was definitely a part of the hours leading up to Mark Capp’s demise.
You guys need an extra pair of balls on the ground, you just let me know.
Will be happy to drive to Nashville, meet you guys in the records department.
We could be a very viable 3 on the ground, present, & calling for answers.
And because of your non savvy response to my post, will tell you something equally non savvy by saying, Stop being subversive.
Get. On. It.
Apparently officer Noah Silva has some very pertinent information.
Lie detector test would be a good place to start.
And, you calling for a DOJ investigation?
Get a damn clue.
DOJ is nothing but a legal thug order of the brotherhood, these days.
Last time the Bureau or DOJ had any integrity was during the days of Louis Freeh.
March 12, 2023 @ 4:10 pm
Thanks for insulting my commitment and “balls” to this subject, Di. If you want to go Nashville and make a scene in a records department, and then demand they subject Noah to a lie detector test based upon your authority as a Saving Country Music commenter, be my guest. Best of luck!
Get. On. It.
March 12, 2023 @ 4:19 pm
“Thanks for insulting my commitment and “balls” to this subject, Di.”
Step back, a minute.
Not insulting your commitment, or the fact that you have balls, whatsoever.
Totally backing your play.
And, making a “scene” is not my style.
I am merely keeping Noah SIlva’s name, at the forefront.
They can’t hide him forever.
March 12, 2023 @ 5:10 pm
Laughing my entire ass off. You’re insane and I refuse to speaking to anyone this stupid.
March 9, 2023 @ 1:41 pm
As I said in the article, “Every case involving police officers and the killing of citizens is different, and the case of Mark Capps presents especially difficult circumstances for both the officers involved, and the investigators looking into the matter. But what seems unquestionable is that the matter should be looked into further, and by objective, third-party entities like the press and the United States Department of Justice.”
How many of the 1,100 people who were killed by police in 2022 had a police officer present in the location where the crime they were accused of occurred, and didn’t tell anyone about it, and then the police didn’t tell anyone the officer was there? Then, the investigation into the killing is turned over to the same agency that had an officer there that nobody informed the public about?
There is a strong case that the civil rights of Mark Capps were violated. If that’s the case, then the Justice Department should investigate, especially if there is a conflict of interest in the investigating entity, which there is with the TBI. This is what makes this case unique. This is why the press should be more involved. Mark Capps was a member of our country music community. The country music community should be asking questions, and speaking out for them to be answered.
March 9, 2023 @ 1:52 pm
I am really not trying to sound combative but if you want the media and celebrities to talk about Capps, start a grassroots movement, start an organization in his name, get people marching in his name, otherwise no one will care or know about the story.
March 9, 2023 @ 2:11 pm
I’m a journalist. It’s not my place to start grassroots movements in these kinds of cases, to launch or sign petitions, to organize concerts, etc. It’s my job to cover this story objectively and to be fair to all parties. What is my job is to report on the story proportionately to its importance, and inform the public. That is what this article is.
I understand your perspectives and concerns, and appreciate you sharing them here.
March 9, 2023 @ 2:35 pm
https://www.change.org/p/accountability-for-mark-capps
started on 2/15 by four music business friends who worked with Mark for 30+ years. Please sign,
March 9, 2023 @ 5:29 pm
ronnie[sic],
Nobody will be marching in Mark Capps’ name. It wouldn’t be useful to anyone to do so.
March 10, 2023 @ 12:18 am
As of tonight, over 1,300 are marching in Mark Capps name. That is not “Nobody”
March 10, 2023 @ 6:28 am
Mark,
I didn’t mean “nobody” in the literal sense. I thought that was obvious.
There will not be mass chaos, probably not even multi-city protests in Mark Capps’ name.
March 10, 2023 @ 11:02 am
I was not being literal either. I thought that was obvious.
March 15, 2023 @ 6:17 pm
We did start a grassroots movement exactly one month ago.
Please join us…dear friends and music colleagues of Mark Capps.
https://www.change.org/p/accountability-for-mark-capps
March 9, 2023 @ 1:29 pm
All Lives Mat…. *Overwhelming sound of screeching*
March 9, 2023 @ 2:29 pm
Nobody cares about it because he wasn’t black. Welcome to America.
March 9, 2023 @ 2:32 pm
Thanks for staying on it, Trig.
March 9, 2023 @ 2:39 pm
Thanks for reporting this Trigger, and I hope you follow up with updates as the case develops.
I think these cases are even more important to police reform than George Floyd (and other high-profile ones). With George Floyd, it was obvious to everyone the officers violated their training and the law. Race then became the predominant discussion (which is one that clearly needed to happen). One could argue that police reform wasn’t that necessary – it was the Officer, not the policies/protocol, that was at fault.
But I think cases like this could actually be more useful for police training. Even if Capps was guilty of his accused crimes, was a SWAT team and covert operation really the safest (for Chaps, and public safety) way forward? I don’t know all the information, and even if I did, I don’t pretend to know everything about these operations. But I think these are the sorts of cases that have learning opportunities for departments. Even if officers followed the protocol, is this the safest protocol for everyone involved?
March 9, 2023 @ 2:58 pm
This is not legal advice.
“There is a strong case that the civil rights of Mark Capps were violated”
Maybe a [civil, rather than criminal] section 1983 [civil rights case] action [for excessive force] could be filed. But who would file it? Capps’ wife? his stepdaughter? are there any of his own descendants / relatives who would do it? And wouldn’t the defense to it be that the force used was reasonable and not excessive, as he had a weapon on his person or close at hand?
March 10, 2023 @ 1:30 am
@glendel–All a civil lawsuit does is punish the public. The person or persons who did the wrong would not pay one cent. If the shooting was unjustified, then the person who did it should be prosecuted criminally.
Oh, an a weapon “close at hand” justifies the police shooting someone? Haven’t you heard that in Red states everyone is supposed to have a gun close at hand.
March 10, 2023 @ 8:04 am
Even if a lawsuit did not the person who did the wrongdoing (although one can bring a Civil Rights suit against an individual), it does provide motivation for governmental entities to provide training and institute practices to try to prevent similar episodes.
March 10, 2023 @ 2:47 pm
I’m familiar with the drill. The idea is that if you loot the public treasury, that will make things better. Kobe Bryant’s widow is getting something like $30 million because some first responders to the crash passed around photos of the bodies among each other. That’s a lot of money that could go to health care, education, children’s services, what have you. Instead it will go to a lady who already has a few hundred million dollars. (And to the lawyers who pulled it off!)
Maybe in Capp’s case, the wife who called the cops on him can get the multimillion dollar settlement. Wouldn’t that be sweet. Or ironic.
March 9, 2023 @ 2:59 pm
You have Barracuda62, leaving this post on, https://savingcountrymusic.com/oversight-board-raises-issues-over-mark-capps-killing-petition-launched/comment-page-1/#comment-1511176, this afternoon, 9 March 2023.
“The original story told to the police and repeated to several close to the situation was that Mark had everyone in the room and held a gun to the head of Noah FIRST.”
Noah is the name of Mark Capps’, stepdaughter’s police officer boyfriend?
Is Noah the 1st name, or the last name of this individual?
Is Noah the “gentleman” who fled the scene because he did not want to get caught in a relationship he had no business being in?
Asking for a friend …
Also, Barracuda62 might want to stop trying to be cute by throwing out bait that he has exclusive information.
Noah, is it?
I’ll just bet …
March 13, 2023 @ 12:43 pm
yes – His name is Noah Silva. Not “bait” – fact. 🙂
March 13, 2023 @ 12:58 pm
Thank you.
March 9, 2023 @ 3:04 pm
I find it somewhat amusing the number of people who want to sit around and arm-chair quarterback what the cops did and didn’t do.
Here’s a thought. Anyone who doesn’t feel like the police are doing a good enough job, are welcome to pick up a badge and walk a beat. I’m betting most of you won’t make it through a full shift.
March 9, 2023 @ 4:30 pm
Police officers are paid using tax-payer funds. Given that and given the immense power police officers have in public and in courtrooms, I think it’s our duty to hold them accountable.
It’s also possible to hold officers (and police standards) accountable while being supportive and respectful of those who serve.
March 9, 2023 @ 7:15 pm
“Hey fellas, it’s broad daylight, this guy has cameras, and is totally expecting you. He also absolutely said he will murder the shit out of any and all police who show up to his house with his vast arsenal of three handguns. So, obviously, what we need for you to do is to be all super duper sneaky and run up on his front porch full speed without him noticing all three of you in your awesome tactical gear, and stick this here super sweet, super sticky SWAT bomb onto his front door. If he “somehow” discovers you (“wink wink”) during your super cool “covert op”, you know what you have to do! Have fun!
March 10, 2023 @ 12:14 am
Please remember that everything Mark’s wife/widow told the police is an allegation. Some posts, not necessarily yours, appear to be using her words as fact. Mark is gone, he won’t get to tell his side of the story. I wrote the petition and there is more about this case that we don’t know than we do. We hope to make inroads with the Nashville DA while this TBI investigation is slow walked. (two months on March 5)
Your posts on TN law have been helpful. Thanks.
March 10, 2023 @ 3:02 am
I agree with you one hundred percent. My post here was meant to be taken as a facetious response to one particular point of view. Please see my post below specifically addressing asserted, but unsubstantiated, allegations levied at Mr. Capps by none other than Police Department mouthpiece Don Aaron. I wish you all the best in your efforts on behalf of Mr. Capps.
March 9, 2023 @ 8:17 pm
Whoever ordered those SWAT officers on the front porch put those officers in harm’s way if we are to believe the Metro Nashville’s official narrative, and they also put them at the risk of legal jeopardy if they ended up having to fatally shoot Mark Capps. In my opinion, this is not a cop vs. criminal situation. This is making a smart decision on how to diffuse a potentially dangerous situation vs. making a dumb one by sending those officers on the porch in violation of Tennessee state law of how to serve a search warrant or take a suspect into custody.
March 9, 2023 @ 5:24 pm
Metropolitan Nashville Police Department Employee and Spokesperson Don Aaron publicity and officially claimed, “The victims…said (Mark) Capps told them multiple times…he would…kill any police who showed up at the house.”
If it is true that Mark said “…multiple times…he would…kill any police who showed up at the house” and, it is also true, that Nashville Metro Police killed Mark in his own home in less than one minute upon physically entering his property, then it would be logical to conclude that Mark was probably attempting to make good on his “multiple” threats to kill any police who showed up at his house, and, equally, would be logical to conclude that if Mark was, in fact, holding a pistol when he opened his front door, it was for the sole purpose of carrying out those premeditated attacks on police.
However, despite the Metro Police Department’s initial proclamation that, “The victims…said (Mark) Capps told them multiple times…he would…kill any police who showed up at the house.”, we now know, for a fact, that none of the affidavits explicitly state or otherwise substantiate this very serious claim. That, coupled with the fact that the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department was willing to make this very assertion in the video depicting Mark’s death at their own hands, with absolutely zero substantiating or corroborating evidence within the affidavits or arrest warrants themselves, is troubling and disturbing to say the least.
A very important question necessarily presents itself. Was this identical completely unfounded assertion – that Mark repeatedly said he would kill any police who showed up to his house – imparted to Officer Coon before he was sent to Mark’s front door? If so, it would have necessarily, substantially, and materially affected his assessment of the situation, as well as his response upon encountering Mark. False premises will ultimately only produce invalid conclusions. Perhaps in this particular case, fatally.
March 10, 2023 @ 1:15 pm
Further, Mrs. Capps’ affidavits read, “The defendant told them multiple times that if they attempted to call anyone, he would kill all of them along with their pets.” If the writer of the affidavits thought it important enough to include the threats to kill the dogs, it would undeniably be important enough to include any and all threats to kill human beings employed in law enforcement who showed up to the Capps’ residence. The obvious omission of such threats in the affidavits are certainly telling. In addition, the honesty, integrity, and motives of Police Spokesman Don Aaron are further thrown into question, if not the entire Municipal entity which he publicly represents.
Another question of material importance is if the SWAT Officers had been informed that a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Officer had been, allegedly, held at gunpoint and threatened by Mark. Once again, in the Critical Incident Briefing video depicting Mark’s death, Metro Police assert that Mark woke his wife and stepdaughter at gunpoint, as well as forced everyone into the living room at gunpoint. Contrary to these statements made to the press and general public in wake of the shooting, none of the affidavits clearly state that Mark initially used a gun to either awaken or “gather everyone in the living room”, however, the TBI Officer’s presence is unambiguously asserted in all of the documents.
March 11, 2023 @ 8:45 am
Tennessee Legal Code
39-16-503. Tampering with or FABRICATING EVIDENCE .
(a) It is unlawful for ANY PERSON, knowing that an investigation or official proceeding is pending or in progress, to:
(2) MAKE, PRESENT, or use any record, document or thing WITH KNOWLEDGE Of ITS FALSITY and WITH INTENT to affect the course or outcome of the investigation or official proceeding.
39-16-402. Official misconduct.
(a) A public servant commits an offense who, with intent to obtain a benefit or to HARM ANOTHER, INTENTIONALLY or KNOWINGLY:
(1) Commits an act relating to the public servant’s office or employment that constitutes an unauthorized exercise of official power;
(2) Commits an act under color of office or employment that exceeds the public servant’s official power;
(3) Refrains from performing a duty that is imposed by law or that is clearly inherent in the nature of the public servant’s office or employment;
NMPD Manual
H. Honesty & Truthfulness
Employees shall be honest and truthful. Truthfulness shall apply when an employee knowingly or intentionally makes a materially false statement. A statement is material when, irrespective of its admissibility under the rules of evidence, it could have affected the course or outcome of an investigation, an official proceeding, or any inquiry regarding employment or job related duties or responsibilities.
K. Obstruction of Rights
Employees shall not knowingly deprive any person of any right to which they are entitled by law or the rules and regulations of the Metropolitan Government.
4.20.050 Official Obligations:
W. False or Inaccurate Reports
Employees shall not make, allow, or cause to be made an oral or written report of an official nature which they know or reasonably should have known is false or inaccurate; when, irrespective of its admissibility under the rules of evidence, it could have affected the course or outcome of an investigation.
March 11, 2023 @ 9:51 am
In the officially stated reasons for SWAT being notified to “assist in the arrest“ of Mark, Don Aaron says it was “… due to Capps having access to guns and his violent actions overnight.” Would not Mark’s supposed threats to kill police be justification enough for SWAT involvement? Would not simply citing the affidavits, apparent, assertions that he had ALREADY used a firearm to kidnap and threaten to kill a police officer be yet another compelling reason to justify, to the public, the presence of the SWAT team and their tactics? Why was it so obviously of the utmost, absolute, and essential importance for Nashville Metro Police to maintain complete and total radio silence on the presence of a Tennessee cop at the scene of the alleged crimes to the media??? A crime in which no one was physically injured, but clearly considered to be so heinous, and perpetrated by a man seemingly so dangerous, that they had no choice or option but to send a paramilitary force armed with explosives and high capacity M4 rifles to his front door – resulting in his almost instantaneous death?
March 9, 2023 @ 5:27 pm
There are two separate discussions to be had about this case. The first one, the one that Trigger is trying to have, is pure in its intentions, and simply seeks to understand why there are so many unanswered questions. Trigger knows that Mark Capps’ race is partly why there is very little coverage about the case, but he’s chosen not to come right out and say that, presumably because he knows how obvious it is.
The second discussion, is the one that most people want to have, including me; and that is: why is this guy’s death at the hands of police virtually ignored, when so many other deaths at the hands of police result in national conversations about police brutality, followed by riots, lootings, calls for the abolition or defunding of police, etc?
To say some version of, “Nobody cares about it because he wasn’t black.”, is to fundamentally misunderstand what is really going on. The reality is, that nobody, that is to say, not near as many as it seems, truly care about it, even when the “victim” is black. But, when the victim is black, and when there is video, the communist uses these incidents to move the ball down the field; to further erode and destroy the ties that used to bind us as a nation. White vs black is merely a coincidence of the time and place in which we live. The elite in the Soviet Union exploited the urban poor. The elite in China exploited the rural poor. The Western elite exploits the rainbow demon mob, inner-city black people, the climate nutters, and the Branch Covidians.
If the communist thought they could move the ball down the field by exploiting White deaths at the hands of cops, they would gleefully do so, but they know they can’t get White people to burn down their own cities. The communist has been sowing the seeds of anger and perceived oppression for 60+ years, and is now reaping the harvest, by exploiting the malcontents.
Think of America as a block of concrete. The malcontents are cracks in the concrete. The communist pours water into the cracks and then freezes it, making the cracks larger.
March 10, 2023 @ 5:22 am
The fuck you talking about?
March 10, 2023 @ 5:56 am
I’m talking about how most people think we’re dealing with some silly libtards, who make way too big a deal about race, when in reality, we’re dealing with the culmination of a 60 year revolution that wants to end your way of life.
I’m talking about how most people think “woke” is a relatively new movement, when it’s actually the climax of an old one.
I’m talking about how so many people, because they graduated from public schools, ask questions like, “The f**k you talking about?”, when they read or hear something that they’re unable to accept, process, or comprehend.
March 10, 2023 @ 3:06 pm
Damn commies! Brainwashing all those public school children! Good thing we have private schooled and home schooled kids fighting the good fight for freedom! ????
March 10, 2023 @ 3:39 pm
^ Note the display of invincible ignorance, as the mid-wit does a boastful and impressively oblivious self-own, by referring to communists as “commies”.
March 10, 2023 @ 5:50 pm
They’re only pretending not to know what you’re talking about because this site infested with commies. Apparently the way to save country music is to be woke and only hear from rural people if they’re singing about how miserable, downtrodden, and heartbroken they are since its inconcievable for them to feel any other way since they’re obviously bottom of the barrel humans. If they had any education beyond their subpar homeschooling they would appreciate Mickey Guyton’s pop music more.
March 10, 2023 @ 7:11 am
It’s just the standard Red Scare paranoia that King Honky is known for. I’d say pay him no mind, but he’s such a prolific commenter that I don’t know how you could ignore him.
March 10, 2023 @ 4:01 pm
Over the course of a year, I probably average less than 5 comments per week on here. I only seem prolific to you because you love reading my comments; which you should definitely stop doing.
March 10, 2023 @ 5:07 pm
Commie is a derogatory word for communist. I guess your mom didn’t teach you that in Homeschooling Period 2, between Period 1: Honky is a Special Guy, and that’s Good, and Period 3: Who Needs Math When You Have Jesus.
March 12, 2023 @ 10:47 am
Okay, so even more impressively oblivious than I thought.
And in case anyone really cares, which they probably don’t, my 3rd period class was called: “Jesus Created Math; Here’s How It Works.”
March 9, 2023 @ 7:38 pm
While I don’t want to divert attention from the individual this story is actually about, I can’t help be more amazed at the ignorance of someone like Childers. Someone who writes thoughtful songs and seems like a smart and decent guy. Maybe he only gets his news and outlook from emotional social media talking points? How are there people out there who don’t see through the narrative, let alone seemingly intelligent people like him?
March 9, 2023 @ 8:52 pm
I do not blame Tyler Childers or anyone else for getting swept up in the hysteria of the summer of 2020. It was an insane time, and everyone was trying to figure out which way was up. You had a “journalist” literally filling out an “Accountability Spreadsheet” listing off all of the artists who refused to support Black Lives Matter on social media. And let’s not forget, Tyler Childers was on that list as NOT supporting it. So was Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, Chris Stapleton, and others that ultimately addressed it. That’s one of the reasons that I criticized that compliance effort, because you couldn’t assume the future intentions of artists.
I also don’t blame Tyler Childers for not speaking out about what happened with Mark Capps. I was simply using the message of “Long Violent History” to make a more global point. How would Tyler Childers even know that Mark Capps was killed unless he was a daily reader of Saving Country Music? There’s been barely any coverage about it, including by the same journalists that DEMANDED artists bend a knee to a movement that was supposed to be about criminal justice reform. We see now who actually cares about the issue, and who was more interested in shallow signaling.
March 9, 2023 @ 9:15 pm
…..”It was an insane time, and everyone was trying to figure out which way was up.”…..????????????????????
That’s not even close to true. Myself and lots of others knew exactly which way was up, and had for a long time. And we tried to warn all of you about it, but you responded by deleting our comments.
March 9, 2023 @ 10:26 pm
Sorry I’m a bit confused by your reply…
“I do not blame Tyler Childers…”
If he’s not responsible…are you saying Lorie Liebig is?
“I also don’t blame Tyler Childers for not speaking out about what happened with Mark Capps. “
Neither do I…did it seem otherwise?
March 12, 2023 @ 1:54 pm
Not true.
There were plenty of rational and smart Americans that didn’t give in to emotionally driven reactions.
We were shouted down and labeled as evil because we opposed rioters burning down cities.
March 9, 2023 @ 9:22 pm
Jake,
It seems obvious to me that there are different kinds of intelligence. One kind, is emotional intelligence. The overwhelming majority of artists don’t possess it. Part of what makes them artistic, also makes them subject to emotion-driven decisions. I’m also not convinced that being a talented artist necessarily means one is intelligent.
At least Childers never acted like a huge prick, that I’m aware of.
March 10, 2023 @ 7:48 pm
Yeah I think you’re right…that’s a rational observation. The phenomenon itself continues to surprise me for some reason. And when I said intelligent, I probably should have said “not overly dumb.”
March 9, 2023 @ 8:03 pm
George Soros isn’t funding protests, therefore this is ignored. But I will say SCM is certainly making up for the media’s oversight.
March 9, 2023 @ 8:04 pm
Thank you, Trigger.
March 9, 2023 @ 8:25 pm
Trig, looks like Officer Coon put at least two, if not three bullets through Mark’s front door while killing him. Attempting to close a door while someone is pointing a lethal weapon at you seems clearly like a defensive action or “movement. Any word on an autopsy report being released publicly?
March 9, 2023 @ 8:45 pm
I would expect the autopsy/toxicology in about a week or two. I’m hoping this also coincides with some sort of at least preliminary findings from the TBI.
March 9, 2023 @ 8:51 pm
All lives matter, but some lives matter more.
Orwell knew.
March 10, 2023 @ 7:14 am
It’s always funny when conservatives quote avowed socialist, George Orwell.
March 10, 2023 @ 7:58 am
Knowledge isn’t biased in its origin, and can manifest itself in unimaginable ways… a blind squirrel will find a nut-
Sticking to the paradigm used by control freaks to keep a division to ensure assumed power is an acolyte of the congregational elders who worship at the feet of control freak authoritarians… political stripes are immaterial… citizens are merely tools to be used as a tool or an enemy of the the elected (and appointed) control freaks who believe they know best and design a one size fits all, provided the “all” can be used as a tool… congratulations on your ascendancy.
I’m neither conservative or liberal in today’s vernacular… nor do I bend to the “official” narratives parroted by the majority of presstitutes in the media… who, at this juncture in our history are “tools” who parrot and ignore the Truth.
March 9, 2023 @ 8:52 pm
Surely, if Mark Capps were black, this would be a major national news story. And we’d be hearing about how “ATDWB”– Answering the Door While Black”–is yet another of the every-day activities engaged in by citizens of color that puts them in danger of being shot by police.
Now, I would oppose a rush to judgment there and I’ll oppose it here. I want this investigated and witnesses subpoenaed and ordered to appear before a grand jury so we can learn the facts.
Some key questions that need definitive answers: What exactly happened in the house that caused the wife and step-daughter to go to the police. (They need to be questioned in detail and apart from each other?) Was the stepdaughter’s cop boyfriend in the house when Capps’ allegedly criminal behavior occurred and did he report it?
Did the police call Mark Capps’ on the phone and ask him to surrender peacefully?
Was Mark Capps actually carrying a gun when he opened the door?
If so, did he attempt to raise it?
Unfortunately, it may be that the lighting and reflections and shadows are such that the police video did not capture it. But each of the officers at the scene should be questioned. (With the obvious exception of Ashley Kendall Coon, who shot Mark Capps dead. Coon will no-doubt invoke his 5th Amendment right to zip his lip.)
March 10, 2023 @ 8:06 am
This is as good a thread as any to insert.
I received my copy of Triggers book earlier this week.
The prelude alone is worth the price of admission…
I’m at page 33…
Being a reader of books… this one is deep… being a reader in general has taught me a lot.
I saw a meme on face book with a teacher handing a kid a book while telling him it’s a software installation for his brain… I’ll add, society sorely needs new brain software…
March 10, 2023 @ 8:34 am
When white people are killed at the same ratio as black people by police in this country feel free to take to the streets white people. Until then, understand that Capps is but one person in millions having police contact daily and each situation is different. His case doesn’t deserve any more attention then any others.
My guess is that this situation will be completely different then the cases mentioned in this article and all those people who think this is some conspiracy can go back to watching Tucker for the “real ” news of the world.
March 10, 2023 @ 9:32 am
“His case doesn’t deserve any more attention then any others.”
I think that’s a very cynical take. First, ALL of these cases deserve attention, and there is a strong case to be made that the case of Mark Capps isn’t getting attention enough, even for a garden variety killing, let alone one by police, and especially one that very well could have been preventable. A daughter no longer has a father. A family no longer has a son. The country music community has lost one of its own. Drowning the importance of this in statistics is the way we lose sight of how this is a tragedy every time it happens, no matter who it is.
As I said in the article, each of these circumstances is unique. This one is unique because there is a very good chance it could have been prevented. It is important to scrutinize this case where it appears Mark’s civil rights were violated and Tennessee state law of how to serve a warrant was not followed so another family and community doesn’t have to mourn the loss of one of their own needlessly.
March 10, 2023 @ 10:03 am
It is a cynical take. No doubt. And it’s very possible that other avenues could have been taken. Maybe they tried other avenues with no luck. However, my guess, is that when a person holds people at gunpoint (family members no less) is drunk and on high on prescription pills, threatens to kill them, law enforcement will be coming expecting the worse. It took a judge to sign off on the warrants so the decision to go to his house wasn’t done without authority. In fact in the link below a similar case ends the same way.
I doubt his case file is sitting underneath old coffee cups and bags of stale donuts waiting to be attended to. Toxicology to confirm what was reported takes weeks, review of recordings and ultimately the States assembly of the case take time.
If this were any other person (and their seems to be plenty https://www.tn.gov/tbi/crime-issues/crime-issues/officer-involved-shootings.html in 2023 alone) the investigation would take the same amount of time with little fanfare from the press.
March 10, 2023 @ 11:02 am
Blair,
I would encourage you to get up to speed on the details of this case, namely that a TBI Officer was in the house when the alleged kidnappings and threats happened, somehow left the house when we’re being told nobody was allowed to or Mark Capps would have killed them, and when he left, failed to notify police or his superiors at the TBI what was happening back in the house with his girlfriend being held hostage.
“Maybe they tried other avenues with no luck.”
No, they didn’t, and this is corroborated by the statements by Metro Nashville police. The operation started with their attempt to place an explosive device on the front door. This was the fatal flaw. Somehow they thought three men would be able to go to the front porch on a house they knew had surveillance cameras, and place a bomb on the front door without being seen.
I agree that there is a good chance they are waiting for toxicology to announce their findings. But as I said in the article, it took 19 days for charges and discipline to be handed down in the Tyre Nichols case in the same state, with the same TBI investigating. Tyre was killed two days after Mark Capps, and that case moved forward six weeks ago. The fear is just like the case of Randy Howard, the Mark Capps killing will just be forgotten by the public and press, and the finding can be buried.
March 10, 2023 @ 11:39 am
I will be the first to admit I have only the information that i have found online. You are in a better position to know more. The only article i read said the off duty cop left before all of it went down at 3 in the morning.
Respectively, I disagree that the Tyre Nichols case has much to do with Capps. Completely different situation, circumstances and amount of evidence that was available quickly.
And please don’t get me wrong, This is a sad story. Somebody during that incident came up with the tactics and strategy to do what they did. And in the end, I doubt when the wife and daughter went to the cops that they would have wanted their husband or dad to be killed. A civil case will bring out all those answers.
March 10, 2023 @ 4:16 pm
“Police said Capps held his wife and stepdaughter at gunpoint for several hours. But according to arrest affidavits, a third person, the stepdaughter’s boyfriend, was also in the home at the time. According to a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesperson, the boyfriend was an off-duty TBI police officer. He left the home before the two women reported their concerns to police.”
March 10, 2023 @ 11:15 am
“It took a judge to sign off on the warrants so the decision to go to his house wasn’t done without authority.”
The arrest warrants signed by a Judge Carolyn Piphus read “…you are therefore commanded, in the name of the State, forthwith to arrest and bring the defendant before a judge of the Court of General Sessions of Davidson County, Tennessee, to answer the above charge.”
Impossible to “answer” charges levied against you in a Court of Law if you are killed by police officers while standing inside of your own home, therefore, obviously, the order was to take him alive. Especially so, given that Judge Piphus explicitly commanded those law enforcement officers to conduct an arrest “forthwith” – immediately; promptly; without delay – not to conduct a “covert operation” which would place all parties involved in mortal peril, and would ultimately culminate in Mr. Capps being shot dead mere seconds after law enforcement physically entered his property.
March 10, 2023 @ 4:50 pm
They all matter, or none matter- I’ll side with the latter- it matters only if it can be used to push an agenda…so, in essence, none matter.
This society is sick and brain washed- and the authoritarians, elected and appointed and in uniform with guns and badges are at the top of the list.
There is no way, a properly educated human can accept that one is better than another because of his status in life- those who do are narcissistic psycho-paths.
In a monkey see, monkey do world when the head monkeys act a fool- so do follower monkeys-
It’s very obvious that too many have never read the Declaration of Independence, independently, without being told what to think about it- throw in the US Constitution as well.
Fucking idiots … good lord. It ain’t rocket science to look beyond your nose- reading is a great place to start- ALL sources, not just what you’ve been told to read and how you should react to whatever it is you are told to read/listen to/watch…
Some of you believe you’re all that and a bag of chips- you ain’t. You are acolytes to the elders in the church of the ignorant being used as tools to further an agenda to keep said elders in power…
March 12, 2023 @ 2:18 pm
Mark Capps was my friend and did not have to die. I am thankful that Trigger is doing what the Nashville journalists are refusing to do, which is investigate the facts of this case.
March 10, 2023 @ 8:57 am
@Blair–Um. Mark Capps was blown away by a cop unlading an assault rifle on him within seconds of walking up to the door, in a situation that the officer could quite possibly have handled in a multitude of other ways. To say that it does not deserve any more attention than any other police encounter–like an officer issuing a citation for jaywalking–is beyond idiotic.
This case obviously deserves a whole lot of attention, whatever the ultimate resolution should be.
March 10, 2023 @ 10:15 am
Yep.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
March 10, 2023 @ 11:03 am
Here are around 200 incidents https://www.tn.gov/tbi/crime-issues/crime-issues/officer-involved-shootings.html in Tennessee in the last four years where cops shot people. How many have you heard about? I never heard about them. Does that make them any less important? Did you ever question if it could have been handled differently?
Interesting side note, black people tend to cited for “Jaywalking” in disproportional numbers compared to the over all makeup of the city they live in.
March 10, 2023 @ 3:09 pm
@Blair–Police shootings of blacks are questioned frequently.
Heck, in the case of Tyrone Williams in Memphis, the killing was ascribed in the media to racism by the police–and then when the police were qucikly charged–justifiably–THAT was ascribed to racism because the police were black!
I would hope that the vast majority of shootings by police are done with clear justification–where the incident develops by surprise and the police react to threats as the situation develops.
The Mark Capps shooting merits high scrutiny because the police had all the time in the world to plan out the arrest, the video shows him being blown away, execution style– by a cop with an assault rifle, and all we have is the cop’s word that Capps raised a gun at him. The shadowy video does not show that that’s what happened. If there’s filtering and enhancement techonology that can glean more info from the video, that could go a long way toward clearing this up.
March 10, 2023 @ 9:42 am
My friend’s dad was the cop that was shot in the Taylor shooting. My cousin worked with Taylor briefly when she was an EMT. She was fired for stealing drugs off the trucks.
March 10, 2023 @ 10:40 am
Did she deserve to be shot to death in her home for stealing drugs years earlier?
March 11, 2023 @ 8:51 pm
No but she was no babe in the woods, she was a huar that knew exactly what those gangbangers were doing. She put herself in harms way.
March 10, 2023 @ 11:34 am
Have you read any of her background? Involved with drug dealers, rented a car that a rival drug dealer of her boyfriend was killed in. If you play in shit, don’t be surprised when some gets on you
March 10, 2023 @ 1:07 pm
And, as we all know at this point, the cops are just another fucking criminal gang!
March 10, 2023 @ 3:44 pm
My bio-dad has been a meth addict and petty criminal for over two decades. Should I expect the police to knock down my door and put a few rounds in me due to my association with him, despite the fact that I have no drug related offenses of my own? Whatever seedy characters Breonna Taylor may have been associated with, police had no probable cause to execute a no-knock warrant on her home. In fact, one of the officers involved has plead guilty to falsifying an affidavit in order to get a search warrant. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-louisville-kentucky-police-detective-pleads-guilty-federal-crime-related-death-breonna
March 10, 2023 @ 1:26 pm
Metropolitan Nashville Police Department Manual
De-Escalation
1. In accordance with current MNPD training on use of force, and where feasible, authorized employees shall use de-escalation techniques and tactics to stabilize the situation and reduce the immediacy of the threat so that more time, options, and resources are available to resolve the situation.
2. In accordance with current MNPD training on use of force, officers shall continually assess the situation and seek to utilize de- escalation techniques in all use of force incidents, where possible.
3. De-escalation techniques may include, but are not limited to:
a. Vocal/Voice Control: Ensuring only one member addresses an individual at a time, regulating vocal tone, explaining the officer’s actions and responding to questions, avoiding repetitive command loops, using calming gestures, verbal persuasion, verbal advisements and verbal warnings.
b. Decreasing exposure: Moving to a safer distance, seeking cover, tactical repositioning, and utilizing barriers between uncooperative subjects.
c. Slowing down the pace of the incident: Slowing speech, taking deep breaths, waiting the subject out, avoiding physical contact/confrontation, calling for additional personnel, requesting specially trained officers (bilingual, negotiators, CIT, etc.).
d. Decreasing visual triggers: Avoid angry expressions or tones, avoiding unnecessary display of weapons.
e. Disengagement: While the ultimate objective of every subject encounter is to avoid or minimize injury, nothing in this policy requires an officer to retreat or be exposed to a potential physical injury before applying reasonable force. However, in some situations, disengagement may be a viable option for individuals who pose no additional threats to themselves or others and who may later be apprehended under safer conditions.
4. Employees shall reduce the degree of force used as the threat diminishes and cease the use of force as soon as reasonable.
5. Successful resolution of an encounter ultimately relies on the cooperation of a subject to provide officers with the time and opportunity to employ de-escalation techniques. Cooperation is more likely obtained by conveying respect and professionalism to the subject throughout the contact.
March 10, 2023 @ 3:37 pm
Metropolitan Nashville Police Department Manual
Title 11: Use of Force
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department recognizes and respects the value and special integrity of each human life. When investing police employees with the lawful authority to use force to protect the public welfare, a careful balancing of all human interests is required.
11.10.010 Purpose
The main responsibility of MNPD officers is to protect the life and property of citizens. In compliance with applicable law, officers shall use only the amount of force necessary and reasonable to accomplish lawful objectives and to control a situation, effect an arrest, overcome resistance to arrest, or defend themselves or others from harm.
When force is necessary, the degree of force employed should be in direct relationship to the amount of resistance exerted, or the immediate threat to the officers or others. There is a compelling public interest that officers authorized to exercise the use of force do so in an objectively reasonable manner and in a way that does not violate the civil rights guaranteed by our Constitution, the Tennessee Constitution, and applicable law. Officers should attempt to use non-confrontational verbal skills, empathy, and/or active listening to stabilize a person in crisis or when confronted with a situation where control is required to effect an arrest or protect the public’s safety. Officers who use excessive or unjustified force degrade the confidence of the community that they serve, undermine the legitimacy of a police officer’s authority, and hinder the Department’s ability to provide effective law enforcement services to the community.
Officers who use excessive or unauthorized force, fail to use authorized techniques, or fail to de-escalate, where reasonable and possible, shall be subject to discipline, up to and including termination, possible criminal prosecution, and/or civil liability. The use of force is only authorized when it is objectively reasonable and for a lawful purpose. Accordingly, the Department will thoroughly review and/or investigate all uses of force by officers to assure compliance with all legal requirements and this policy.
This policy is for Metropolitan Nashville Police Department use only and does not apply in any criminal or civil legal proceedings. This department policy should not be construed as the creation of a higher legal standard of care. Violation of this directive will only form the basis for departmental administrative sanction.
March 10, 2023 @ 7:15 pm
He’s old and while, nothing to see.
March 11, 2023 @ 4:45 pm
Metro Police Spokesman Don Aaron assures viewers of the Critical Incident Briefing video, before it is actually depicted, that, “…he (Capps) opened the front door with pistol in hand.”
In the body cam footage that follows, the average viewer will detect no obvious weapons inside of the residence, much less a pistol clearly in Mark’s hand. If Metro Police was so confidant in their positive assertion that Mark was holding a gun, why, immediately after presenting the video footage purportedly supporting it, would they feel the need to display a still photo of a handgun on the floor and insist, “This is the pistol he was carrying.”
As we clearly recall, the initial statement was, “…he (Capps) opened the front door with pistol in hand.” All that can been positively affirmed by the footage is the first half of the claim, Capps opened his door. Certainly not the much more crucial second half, that he actually had a “pistol in hand”.
Not to mention the fact that even if he did have a pistol, the police had made no effort to either announce their presence or their identity as law enforcement. To the contrary, as they later confirmed, they were actively engaged in stealth. It is completely within this homeowner’s legal right to investigate and confront, with “pistol in hand”, any and all unknown, unannounced individuals lurking on his porch who are, additionally, actively affixing some mysterious device to his front door (it was a fucking bomb) – and they definitely aren’t out there trying to sell him Girl Scout cookies or ask him if he knows Jesus loves him.
If Mark is, at the very least as you claim, actually holding a gun, publicly release a video that shows it. Officer Coon’s body cam didn’t show it? That’s ok, because two other cops were present – presumably with cameras rolling. But for some strange reason, you are unwilling to present those to the public. Mark also had cameras filming the outside, and possibly also the interior, of his residence. Have we been given even a single frame to support any, with three minor exceptions, of the NMPD’s myriad assertions? Don’t think so. Here are the three points made by NMPD in the Critical Incident Briefing video that the body cam footage confirms:
“He (Capps) opened the front door.
“SWAT Officer Kendall Coon fired.”
“Capps died at the scene.”
Officer Coon supposedly “…yelled at Capps to show his hands”. This cannot be visually confirmed by the footage presented, in that it does not depict his mouth at all. Given that an audio overdub would be theoretically possible, especially so recognizing that this is not the raw body cam footage, but a video created by NMPD for media distribution. For all we know, Officer Coon may have yelled “Hasta la vista, baby”.
Nashville Metro Police is making an obvious and clumsy attempt to use verbal assertions, preemptively, in an effort to influence how viewers will interpret events once the footage of the Capps killing actually commences. Even with the sound muted, onscreen text still actively tries to steer the mind, if not also the imagination, of the viewer. To wit:
> “Capps awakened them at 3:00 a.m. at gunpoint””Capps repeatedly pointed a pistol at them and threatened them”<
Once again, not even “allegedly”. Definitively. Seems like the rule is: if you’re dead and we are the ones who made you dead, then you automatically did everything someone else accused you of, in addition to anything and everything we choose to accuse you of. No evidence necessary or needed.
NMPD: You repeatedly, publicly, and officially tell me things that the affidavits do not actually say or support. You continually make claims and assertions which your video “evidence” does not show. You have made every effort to omit and ignore the presence of a Tennessee police officer at the scene of the alleged crime, despite his presence being included and affirmed in every single affidavit. Cornell Law school offers this definition, which we may find relevant, “Deception is the act of deliberately causing somebody to accept something as true that is not true. It is an action that hides the truth.”
All of this taken in combination, I can only logically deduce that the NMPD are not at all whatsoever interested in coming clean as to the actual facts, existent but suppressed evidence, and bizarre circumstances surrounding this case, but are, in actuality, actively attempting to deceive. When government agents and agencies are permitted to misuse the power entrusted to them by the citizenry, then “an immediate, imminent threat” to our civil liberties, bodily integrity, and basic humanity necessarily follows. Yesterday they attempted to conduct a “covert operation” against Mark, the day after and everyday since, they have attempted to conduct one against us all.
March 13, 2023 @ 12:54 pm
Great points as always, Coat. Don Aaron never said “Alleged” when referring to anything that Mark did. He spoke as if it was fact – which it was not. Thank you so much for sharing the parts of the MNPD manual that shows they clearly violated their own policies. Only time will tell if they actually do anything about it. We aren’t stopping trying to get justice for Mark. There are a handful of us and we are going to do our best to hold them (and Noah Silva) accountable.
March 13, 2023 @ 1:16 pm
The presence of a sleeping TBI Officer in the Capps residence at 3:00 a.m. is definitely somewhat puzzling. There are other TBI offices in Jackson, Chattanooga, etc. Could he possibly have been visiting from one of these other municipalities, in which he actual works and resides, or is it confirmed that he works in the Nashville Office and lives in the area? Also, any chance that he is a married man? As we know, the simple act of marital infidelity is a violation of the legally binding Marital Contract.
March 11, 2023 @ 11:19 pm
why didnt the girls take the gun with them if he was asleep ???????????? when they left to go to the police pct I know they were running for their lives just lingering question.
March 12, 2023 @ 6:09 am
“…Officer AKC barked…” 🙂
Yeah, as this thing currently stands in the public’s eye, Capps too closely resembles a poster child for “red flag” laws, so don’t hold your breath for the DOJ to risk spoiling the moment.