Police Officer Francis Paul Scurry

Francis Paul Scurry

Police Officer Francis Scurry was shot and killed while backing up two detectives who were serving an aggravated assault warrant at approximately 9:30 am.

The officers arrived at the apartment, knocked on the door, and received no response. After a maintenance man attempted to kick the door in, one of the suspects came to the door and said he had been sleeping. The suspect was immediately arrested.

As the officers began searching the apartment for the second suspect, they noticed that a shelf near the attic crawl space was broken. Officer Scurry and a second officer entered the attic and immediately confronted the suspect, who began shouting that the officers should shoot him, and then opened fire on the officers. The second officer was struck in the knee and fell to the ground. Officer Scurry was struck several times but was able to return fire, seriously wounding the suspect. The suspect then exited the attic and continued firing at the other detectives.

Responding officers attempted to enter the apartment in order to rescue Officer Scurry but were confronted by the suspect. The suspect was yelling that he wanted to surrender, but refused to drop his gun while attempting to reload it. One of the responding officers then fired on the suspect with a shotgun, killing him. Another officer entered the attic and began CPR. While administering CPR, the ceiling collapsed and the officer fell to the floor below. Officer Scurry was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

Officer Scurry was a U.S. Army veteran and had served with the Metro Nashville Police Department for 21 years.