EVANSVILLE — The man an Evansville police officer shot and killed Saturday moments after responding to a domestic dispute was not armed with a gun but rather a novelty smoking pipe designed to replicate the look of a firearm, a police official said Monday.
And in newly released body camera footage, a man can be heard exclaiming, “It’s not a gun!” seconds before the officer, whom officials have not named, shot and killed 58-year-old Everett Nunn.
The Evansville Police Department published the body camera footage depicting the deadly shooting during a news conference Monday afternoon. Local officials, including Evansville Chief of Police Phil Smith and Mayor Stephanie Terry, who said she knew Nunn, looked on as the footage played from overhead television screens in a Civic Center conference room.
The officer who shot and killed Nunn has been placed on paid administrative leave, per EPD policy, pending the outcome of an investigation. According to department spokesman Sgt. Anthony Aussieker, that investigation will be handled internally.
Ahead of Monday’s news conference, Evansville NAACP President Ed Lander said the organization would “continue to monitor the investigation closely and advocate for both the integrity of the process and the protection of Black life across the city.”
Aussieker and Terry would go on to confirm that city officials had spoken with NAACP representatives.
It all started around just before 8:30 p.m. Saturday when a woman dialed 911 and said her son and her husband “were about to fight,” according to police. The woman’s call with dispatchers became disconnected at one point, Aussieker said, and when dispatchers reopened a line of communication they reported hearing what sounded like an altercation.
The officer who would go on to fire the fatal shots was the first to arrive at the East Louisiana Street home. Aussieker said the officer believed he was responding to a domestic dispute, and that while other officers were en route, he acted properly by approaching the scene without backup.
Just after 8:27 p.m., the officer parked his cruiser and calmly walked toward the home, directing the beam of his flashlight onto the front patio where a woman can be seen standing, according to his body-worn camera footage.
“They’re inside,” the woman informs the officer, who asks if the people in question were “fighting right now or just arguing.”
The woman appeared preoccupied with a commotion inside the home, glances of which the officer could see through a storm door: “Don’t take that bag outside my house,” a woman can be heard shouting at someone as the officer continues making his way toward the front door.
Just as the officer crosses the threshold and pans his flashlight across the dimly lit and cluttered interior, the woman he briefly spoke to outside says, “Somebody’s going to jail because there’s a gun in that house.”
Within just a handful of seconds the incident spirals out of control.
Immediately after the woman uttered the statement about a gun being inside the house, a man – it is unclear if it is Nunn – appears to exclaim, “It’s not a gun!”
The officer commands him to “put that down.” Less than two seconds later, the officer opens fire, striking Nunn, who was standing just feet away. An object can be seen in the body camera footage dropping from Nunn’s hands less than a second before the camera recorded audio of the first gunshot.
The rounds zip past a woman, who screams, “Oh my god!”
Amidst the ensuing chaos, the officer trains his weapon on two other occupants of the home who react to the shooting with shock, cries and wails.
“You just shot my Dad! … Help him!” one pleads.
“I can’t right now. Backup!” the officer replies.
As the officer reports the shooting over his radio, while keeping his gun trained on the other occupants inside the home, a woman asks, “Why did you do that?” before asserting the supposed weapon was a “toy” — a fact investigators would later confirm.
As the officer approaches a male witness to the shooting inside the home and commands him to drop the “gun,” the man replies, “It’s not a gun!” As the man exasperatedly tries to convince the officer the apparent weapon is a fake he reaches toward the object at the center of the deadly altercation, saying, “This is what it is, sir, look!” The officer cuts him off: “Drop it you idiot!”
The replica firearm bore a black exterior and resembled a semi-automatic pistol. Investigators would later recover an actual firearm during a search of the home, but the weapon was not in Nunn’s possession at the time of the shooting, according to Aussieker.
Aussieker, who displayed the replica pistol during Monday’s news conference, said paramedics rendered aid to Nunn, who was transported to Deaconess Hospital. He later died.
Scores of tributes to Nunn have since poured onto social media. According to Courier & Press archives, Nunn was an offensive tackle and defensive lineman for the semi-pro Evansville Vipers football team in the early 2000s.
“Any time there is an officer-involved shooting it’s a tough time in our city,” Terry said in a statement Monday afternoon. “Because I’ve lived here all my life, I know Everett Nunn. My prayers go out to the Nunn family and to the officer involved.”
Terry acknowledged that in the wake of the shooting “emotions were running high” and that “many are seeking answers.”
“I want you to hear from me directly: my administration will continue to be honest and transparent throughout this process,” Terry said.
Houston may be contacted at houston.harwood@courierpress.com
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Man shot by Evansville police held replica pistol, officials say
Reporting by Houston Harwood, Evansville Courier & Press / Evansville Courier & Press
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