Police Officer Francis Paul Scurry

Police Officer Francis Paul Scurry

Metro Nashville Police Department, Tennessee

End of Watch Friday, May 17, 1996

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Francis Paul Scurry

Police Officer Francis Scurry was shot and killed while backing up two detectives who were serving an aggravated assault warrant at an apartment in Madison 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. He was survived by his daughter, mother, two sisters, and a brother.

Bio

  • Age 48
  • Tour 21 years
  • Badge Not available
  • Military Veteran

Incident Details

  • Cause Gunfire
  • Weapon Handgun
  • Offender Shot and killed by other officers.

Back up for fellow officer(s)

Most Recent Reflection

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Thinking about you this week particularly as we honor all of the fallen police officers. After initially meeting Paul he became a part of our family. He was just a great person. If you knew him you were lucky. He loved photography and offered to take photos at my brothers wedding. He was afraid of spiders. He was hilarious. He was kind and thoughtful. He was selfless.
I did a ride along with him once and on a particularly intense domestic call I witnessed his steely-eyed professionalism. He was the kind of officer who made people who were skeptical of officers change their mind and become respecters of officers. He was the best friend to the community he served. He was a loving father to his daughter Melanie, who we got to see from time to time. She was everything to him.
He spent a lot of breaks at Rivergate Bonanza (that my mom managed) with fellow officers and he protected that place like it was his own.
We have never forgotten that awful day and we were not surprised at hearing the story. It was so like him to tell that criminal he wouldn’t shoot and kill him and to just come on out.
He talked all the time about retiring and moving back home and fishing.
I hope there’s fishing in heaven.
He meant a lot to our family. We will never forget.

Dawn V
Friend

May 15, 2023

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