Nine police officers in Tennessee opened fire on a 37-year-old man on Thursday afternoon after a confrontation on an interstate highway in Nashville. The man, who police said had been sitting on a guardrail on the busy roadway, died.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation identified the victim late Thursday as Landon Eastep. Samantha McGill-Barge, Eastep’s sister-in-law, told The Daily Beast she was baffled that he was on the highway Thursday.

“I wasn’t aware there was anything wrong,” she said. She added that Eastep’s widow was in contact with a lawyer but had no plans to take legal action. The two had dated for nearly four years and been married just shy of a year, McGill-Barge said.

“He loved my sister and my kids very much and, to my knowledge, was a good guy. It’s a very unfortunate situation. I’m in shock. I was at home with my kids when I found out,” she said.

McGill-Barge wrote in a fundraiser for Eastep and his wife that he had been “murdered by several officers.”

“This man had only a box cutter and had already shown it to officers before they killed him in cold blood,” she said. “He was shot for no good reason at all and he did not deserve to die. He has left behind his wife, and she has no means to financially care for herself during grieving, bury Landon, or even provide any services for her husband.”

Nashville court records indicate Eastep had an outstanding charge of domestic assault with bodily injury from November. His next court date was scheduled for April.

In a video filmed by a bystander and posted to Twitter by news outlet WSMV, Eastep can be seen standing still in the right lane of the highway as almost a dozen Tennessee Highway Patrolmen and Nashville Police look on, guns drawn. The entire highway is blocked on both sides. Eastep raises his arms towards police, and the video pauses. Multiple gunshots can then be heard.

BREAKING: TBI is investigating a deadly officer-involved shooting on I-65 in Crieve Hall this afternoon. See the latest information on the investigation. https://t.co/BN83p7EzNN pic.twitter.com/eO8YAMShYV

— WSMV News4 Nashville (@WSMV) January 27, 2022

In a press briefing, Nashville Metro Police spokesman Don Aaron said a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer was traveling along the interstate on Thursday afternoon when he noticed Eastep sitting on the guardrail.

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