Bodycam Video Shows Sheriff Oddie Shoupe Defending Order To Kill Unarmed Suspect

A Tennessee sheriff is being sued for using excessive force after he was recorded on a bodycam video boasting about telling his officers to shoot a man instead of using patrol cars to ram the suspect off the road as the vehicles might get damaged, reports said Tuesday.

Body camera video from the aftermath of a deadly officer-involved shooting in April 2017 in Tennessee has raised new questions about what exactly happened and if there was a necessity to shoot at all.

Video obtained by News Channel 5 showed White County Sheriff Oddie Shoupe discussing his order to use deadly force with another deputy. Shoupe did not realize he was being recorded by a body camera, which another deputy had placed in the back of a patrol car.

What the bodycam footage shows has now become the center of a federal lawsuit.

“They said ‘we’re ramming him,’” Sheriff Oddie Shoupe of White County said on tape in the aftermath of the killing of suspect Michael Dial. “I said, ‘Don’t ram him, shoot him.’ F--- that s---. Ain’t gonna tear up my cars.”

The sheriff reportedly arrived on the scene shortly after police shot Dial at the end of a chase.

“I love this s---,” Shoupe said, apparently unaware his comments were being recorded by another deputy’s body-worn camera. “God, I tell you what, I thrive on it.

“If they don’t think I’ll give the damn order to kill that mother------ they’re full of s---,” he added, laughing. “Take him out. I’m here on the damn wrong end of the county,” he said.

In April 2017, Smithville Police attempted to pull over Dial for driving on a suspended license. He was driving a 1976 pickup and towing a fully loaded trailer as can be seen in the video showing his chase.

During the low-speed chase, Dial rammed his pickup into several law enforcement vehicles, drove into oncoming traffic and ran red lights, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI).

After a point Dial’s trailer flattened, when two officers pursuing him fired shots into his vehicle, sending the pickup careening off the highway and then down an embankment into trees. Dial was fatally shot in the head, police said.

Reserve Deputy Adam West, who also got involved, was upset after the incident. Sheriff Shoupe comforted West by telling him he did exactly as he was ordered, according to a part of the bodycam footage.

"You don't have to worry about this. I made the decision. You don't have to worry about it. I took that away from y'all. You don't have to worry about nothing. Everything's cool. You done exactly right," the sheriff said.

Those comments from the sheriff and the shooting spurred Dial’s widow, Robyn Dial, to file a federal lawsuit against Shoupe and officers involved in the shooting. The lawsuit alleged the officers used excessive force against her husband, who was unarmed.

"It was not only inappropriate but also unconscionable for Defendant Shoupe to give the order to use deadly force," the filing stated, calling his decision proof of a "malicious and sadistic mindset," according to the Guardian.

The lawsuit also stated the sheriff "preferred to shoot and kill Mr. Dial rather than risk damaging his patrol cars."

A TBI inquiry into Dial’s death determined the officers who fired at him were justified in doing so. The report claimed Dial “was a dangerous and unstable subject who posed a serious and immediate risk of serious bodily injury or death to both law enforcement officers as well as other citizens in the immediate area,” the Cookville Herald-Citizen reported.