Nashville Police release video after officer shoots suspect, ‘Please don’t shoot me’

Footage from a Nashville Police officer’s body camera shows him telling a carjacking suspect more than a dozen times to drop a gun before firing at the man six times, killing him.

Officer Pierce Moore, who has been with the department since May 2023, responded to the scene of the carjacking at Rosa L Parks Boulevard and Broadway at about 9 p.m. on Friday. Moore met with an Uber driver and his passenger, who both said a man, later identified as 26-year-old Adam Rodriguez, took the driver’s Honda Odyssey at gunpoint.

Don Aaron, spokesman for the department, said Rodriguez was a passenger in a white Kia driven by his girlfriend. A gunshot from inside the Kia pierced the windshield moments before the car bumped into the back of the Honda at Rosa L Parks Boulevard and Broadway.

Body camera footage shows Moore approaching the Uber driver and passenger minutes after the carjacking. The passenger tells Moore that after the fender-bender, he got out of the car to stop the Kia. The driver also got out of the vehicle, the man tells Moore.

“It was a woman driving and she was scared,” the passenger told Moore. “He was telling her to drive.”

Officers caught up with the Honda on 10th Avenue North and began chasing Rodriguez into the backyard of a home. Moore fatally wounded Rodriguez after “he went for his pistol,” police said. Rodriguez was taken to the hospital for treatment but died there.

Body camera footage

The camera footage shows Moore coming upon Rodriguez in North Nashville. Officers successfully popped a tire on the Honda with a spike strip, Aaron said, and Moore continued following the car until it stopped, and Rodriguez fled.

The 68 second video picks up with Moore in his patrol car radioing that he had found Rodriguez. The officer gets out of the car and starts running, yelling commands to “stop” and “drop the gun.”

Moore continues to chase Rodriguez and there’s distant yelling, though it’s unclear if that was from the man or another person. There’s a loud bang and then Moore rounds a corner with both his pistol and flashlight drawn.

Moore’s light illuminates Rodriguez, who is backed into the corner of a porch of a home. For about 25 seconds, Moore continues to yell commands at Rodriguez.

“Drop the gun. Drop the gun,” Moore says. “Show me your hands. Drop the gun.”

“No,” Rodriguez says. “I’m not going to kill you.”

Moore again tells Rodriguez to put his hands up and drop the firearm. Rodriguez throws his left arm in the air and keeps his right down by his side and sounds like he is sobbing. Moore again tells Rodriguez to drop the gun.

“No,” Rodriguez yells back, as he slides down to the ground. “No, please. Please don’t shoot me.”

Moore climbs the stairs to the porch and Rodriguez continues yelling at him.

“Stay right there,” he says to Moore, holding out his left hand in front of him while keeping his right down by his side. “Stay right there.”

Moore’s flashlight illuminates Rodriguez and a pistol is visible in his right hand, though it appears pointed downwards when six gunshots ring out. A person inside the home appears at the window right before the gunfire.

The video stops short of the gunfire, but the audio continues. Rodriguez screams out while Moore radios that shots were fired.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville Police body camera footage released after suspect killed