JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Saturday’s incident in which Erwin police officers fired shots that ended in the death of Grady McIntosh was Northeast Tennessee’s fourth officer-involved shooting (OIS) of 2024.
Erwin PD: Man dead after officer-involved shooting
That’s the same number of OISs regionwide as in 2023, putting the last two years at less than half the average of the previous four years, according to Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) data. The region averaged 8.5 OISs per year from 2019-2022, with a high of 11 in 2019 and a low of six in 2020.
In fact, as many people died in such encounters in 2019 alone (8) as were shot total in 2023 and 2024 combined.
Since 2019, 25 people have died in the 42 total officer-involved shootings in Northeast Tennessee, while statewide there have been 185 deaths and 307 total officer-involved shootings during the same period. That is an OIS-related death roughly every 12 days. A good number of the incidents have resulted in injuries to officers, with a handful of fatalities to officers.
A local criminal justice instructor called the recent regional data “a positive trend” but cautioned that with such small numbers, drawing any strong conclusions isn’t warranted…