A federal appeals court has ruled that a lawsuit on behalf of a Nashville woman tased and shot by police officers during a mental health crisis can go forward. In a ruling on Tuesday, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court judge’s decision to dismiss the case, allowing attorneys to pursue the woman’s legal claims against Metro and two named officers.
The incident occurred on the evening of March 12, 2021, when Melissa Wooden called 911 and asked for a SWAT team to come to her house and kill her. According to court documents and a Metro Nashville Police Department briefing at the time, three officers responded to the Goodlettsville address where Wooden was outside holding a pickaxe and a baseball bat.
Footage from Officer Benjamin Williams’ body camera shows one officer yelling at her to “step away from my car” as he approaches the scene. Williams asks Wooden “what’s going on?” and whether she has taken anything today. After Wooden repeatedly says the officers are going to have to kill her, he tells her multiple times that nobody is going to kill her. He also tells her that “there’s no reason for me to pull my weapon on you because right now, there’s distance between us, we can figure something else out.”…