“In this case, this wasn’t about a split second decision based on a threat. This was an overreaction and inappropriate use of deadly force,” Campbell’s attorney John Morris said about the shooting. Morris says a judge this week dismissed the assault of an officer charges against Campbell, reports News Channel 5.
“There was no crime there. There never should have been charges,” Morris said.
Indeed. That night, Campbell had done nothing wrong when Cheatham county sheriff’s deputies — Sgt. Doug Fox and Chris Austin showed up to his home. The deputies claim they were responding to a 911 hang up, but according to Campbell’s attorney, he never made a 911 call until after these two maniacs started shooting through his door.
As the body camera footage shows, when the deputies arrived, they had on no flashing lights and no sirens. They never once announced themselves as police and simply started quietly knocking on Campbell’s door and calling his name.
Not knowing who was at his door, Campbell was naturally startled—especially when the unidentified men started talking about guns.
“Come on out Mark. What’s up man?” said one deputy.
“You gotta gun?” said Campbell.
“What’s going on Mark?” said the deputy.
“I got one too,” said Campbell.
Campbell was merely trying to tell the strangers at the door that he was armed too, so they shouldn’t try anything. But these strangers had qualified immunity, so they took this claim by Campbell as a threat to their lives and began shooting.
“I went to open the door and boom, boom two shots through the door,” said Campbell, who by some incredible chance, wasn’t hit.
The other deputy, however, was almost shot. As the video shows, he has to dive to the ground to get out of the way of his lunatic partner with a gun.
When the rounds started coming through the door, Campbell yelled to his wife to call 911 because people were trying to kill them.
“When I hit the floor I told her to call 9-1-1 to say someone is shooting at us,” said Campbell.
“You still had no idea who it was?” asked the interviewer.
“Never had any idea who it was,” said Campbell.
As the video shows, the cops never identified themselves so Campbell had no idea who he was dealing with until after they shot up his home.
“They do not announce themselves as police or law enforcement,” said Morris.
Morris is now suing the department on behalf of his client, noting that there was no justification for the use of deadly force.
“We’re alleging violation of civil rights,” said Morris.
Adding to the ridiculous nature of this interactions is the fact that after they tried to kill him, Campbell was then arrested and charged with assault on the officers—despite never assaulting them!
As the video shows, when the sheriff shows up, he congratulates his deputies for shooting at the innocent man and says, “good job” as he hugs the deputy.
What’s more, the sheriff attempted to justify his deputies’ actions by claiming that Campbell hates cops—therefore it was okay to open fire on the unarmed innocent man and then kidnap him.
“He just hates law enforcement. He hates anyone in authority,” said Sheriff Mike Breedlove. “It’s simply dangerous going to his house.”
Campbell’s attorney disagrees and noted that he’d been a victim of home invasion before—not from the police—and so he is naturally wary.
“My client has had issues with people coming to his home and roughing him up in the past. Not the police, but other individuals. He doesn’t know these are the police,” said Morris.
We can hear on the body camera that the deputies claimed Campbell had a gun, which they used as justification for opening fire.
“Chief, I was the one who shot. We got up to the door. He asked do we have a gun. He says I got a gun. He opens the door and lifts something up. Puts it up to the door and I shoot at him,” said Sgt. Fox.
However, the body camera footage never shows Campbell lift anything up, only crack the door open before they started shooting.
What’s more is the fact that no gun was found and Campbell doesn’t own one.
Naturally, Sheriff Breedlove said the video doesn’t show everything and he believes his deputies who said Campbell pointed a weapon—despite no weapon in the home.
“I’m scared to death if I open my door who’s out here now,” said Campbell.
Indeed. Had the deputies actually killed Campbell, rest assured that his name would’ve been dragged through the mud, his character assassinated, and the officers hailed as heroes. The body camera footage would have never seen the light of day and the public would have never known the difference.
However, because he lived, the world now knows just how dangerous these deputies are in Cheatham County.
As for the two deputies who attempted to kill an innocent man and then falsely arrested him, they never faced any consequences. Doug Fox is no longer with the sheriff’s department, however, as he was fired for assaulting a citizen while off-duty.
If you doubt the dangerous nature of this department, remember that they were the ones who made national headlines in 2017 for strapping a teenager down to a restraint chair and torturing him with a taser on video. The same sheriff who congratulated his deputies for shooting at an innocent man took to Facebook at the time to brag about the teen allegedly urinating on himself during the torture. In that incident, two deputies were charged though neither of them went to jail.
