NASHVILLE — The man who suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head while running away from police officers in a public housing area off of Claiborne Street in Nashville has died. He is identified as Markquett Martin, 21, of Delk Avenue.
Police say a citizen flagged down a community engagement officer to report that a man matching Martin’s description was armed with a gun — there had been reports of shots fired in that immediate area during the past few days.
When two officers approached Martin to speak with him, he ran from them. The officers gave chase, during which Martin fell and dropped a gun. He picked it up and continued running.
After making his way through a field, Martin’s gun discharged, “possibly accidentally,” police said. No police officers fired their weapons.
“Now at this point, one would think it was probably not intentional, that perhaps he had his finger on the trigger guard and in the running movements, the gun discharged,” said Metro Nashville Police Spokesman Don Aaron.
A .40 caliber pistol with an extended magazine was recovered at the scene. An autopsy is pending.
Police released video of the incident but noted, “The MDHA video system does not record continuously. The freezes in the video are from the system itself.”
