The concern many Americans now hold is when these extrajudicial killings could come for members of their community, or someone they know. But the truth is for country music and Nashville, it already did.
The killing of VA nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis has done something quite exceptional that we rarely see in the United States these days: bring people towards something resembling a consensus opinion. It’s not just the killing, but the rhetoric that proceeded it that made the matter feel less political, and more personal. It cut less across one’s feelings on policy, and more about a universal fear on the infringement of very fundamental civil rights that all Americans hold dear, and specifically the right to protest and bear arms. Where in previous eras any officer involved shootings resulted in cautious statements by officials, paid administrative leave for the officers involved, and a thorough investigation, we got propagandized hyperbole not even law enforcement proponents could justify, along with rushes to judgment that appropriately called into question the credibility of everyone involved.The characterization of commander-at-large of the United States Border Patrol, Greg Bovino that Alex Pretti was “out to do maximum damage, and massacre law enforcement,” and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s asserting that Pretti was “brandishing” a firearm feels so buffoonish in the face of the overwhelming video evidence, including that the gun was removed from Pretti’s possession before a dozen or so shots rang out while he was face down on the ground, surrounded by officers. The rhetoric has been so irresponsible, even the Trump Administration that has been notoriously reluctant to show weakness or regret is now reshuffling and re-assigning the leadership involved in the killing and response, and drawing down the numbers of Federal law enforcement in Minnesota to attempt to de-escalate tensions. The concern many Americans now hold is when these extrajudicial killings could come for members of their community, or someone they know. But the truth is for the country music community and Nashville, it already did. It just didn’t become the cause célèbre the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti did, or George Floyd or Brianna Taylor for that matter. We’re talking about the killing of four-time Grammy-winning Mark Capps in January of 2023.
Similar to Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the same entities who helped perpetrate the killing of Mark Capps were also the ones assigned to investigating it. Lies and mischaracterizations were fed to the media and public immediately to push them off the scent. And also similar to the Alex Pretti killing, Second Amendment rights we’re very much a part of the issue, with the presence of a gun used to justify the killing, even though the gun was never fired, and there was no evidence it was ever brandished. In both situations, there was video recording of law enforcement asking, “Where is the gun?” after the shooting, because the answer was not obvious in the immediate aftermath. – – – – – – – –
With scores of credits to his name from working with artists such as Dolly Parton, The Oak Ridge Boys, Ronnie Milsap, The Isaacs, and many others, 54-year-old Mark Capps was well-known and beloved throughout the country music community. Mark Capps also came from a prominent country music family. He was the son of Grand Ole Opry legend and Musicians Hall of Fame member Jimmy Capps, also known as “The Man In Back.”But in the early days of 2023, Mark Capps was going through a difficult time. Mark’s brother Jeffery Allen Capps passed away on January 3rd—just two days before he would be killed by Metro Nashville Police. On December 15th, 2022, Becky Isaacs of the country Gospel band The Isaacs was hit head-on in a two car collision in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and hospitalized with severe injuries. Capps was close to Becky Isaacs. This also resulted in the Isaacs having to cancel numerous tour dates. Mark Capps was the touring engineer for The Isaacs at the time, which put Mark Capps out of work right around the Holidays.All of this led to January 5th. Still distraught over the death of his brother, Mark Capps was heavily medicated and drinking alcohol. When his wife Tara came home and saw Capps drinking, she took the beer from him, which helped initiate the altercation. Police reports do make it clear that Mark Capps was verbally threatening both his wife and stepdaughter McKenzie, and acting erratically as a fight dragged on into the night. But the whole time there was a third person in the house with Mark Capps as well. Zachary Noah Silva is an officer for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (or TBI), and was staying in the house that night. He was the boyfriend of Mark’s stepdaughter. Not only was Silva in the house, he was there with his sidearm, badge, and uniform. Despite police later characterizing the incident as Mark Capps kidnapping his family and not allowing them to leave, Noah Silva was able to leave during the incident and after it had de-escalated. And when Noah Silva left, he felt no need to report the incident to either Nashville Metro Police, or to his TBI superiors when he arrived at work.Mark’s wife and stepdaughter were able to leave eventually too, going to a nearby police station, and leaving Mark Capps alone in the house. The two women provided sworn affidavits that Mark had threatened to kill them, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. But as opposed to trying to open a line of communication with Mark to attempt to de-escalate or get Mark to leave the house, the SWAT team was called and ordered to extricate Mark Capps from his home. Three SWAT Officers were ordered to the front porch of the Mark Capps house to place an explosive device on the front door to blow it off its hinges. When Capps came to the door after hearing a commotion outside—allegedly with a revolver in his hand—SWAT officer Ashley Kendall Coon fired four times at Capps.
As can be seen in body camera footage, after the first shot was fired, the front door of the house closed. Despite not being able to see Capps in order to determine if he remained a threat, Officer Coon kept firing, shooting Capps three times through the closed door, ultimately killing Capps in the front room of his house. Along with the bullets, fragments of the door were found in Mark during the autopsy. Mark Capps was shot through the closed metal door of his home. Body camera footage from the officers left it inconclusive if Mark had a gun, or if he pointed it toward officers. Whether Capps had a gun or not, he was clearly retreating when he was shot.
In a press conference held on the day of the shooting, Metro Nashville Public Affairs Director Don Aaron stated that Mark Capps had kidnapped his wife and stepdaughter at gunpoint and held them against their will. The media ran with this story and reported it virtually verbatim.
Wife Tara Capps wanted her husband removed from the home since he was clearly experiencing a mental health crisis, but she never wanted him killed. As the Associated Press reported at the time, “Nashville has a project called Partners in Care that teams counselors from the city’s Mental Health Cooperative with officers to respond to mental health emergencies where there is a gun or other danger present. Instead, members of the Metro Nashville Police Special Response Tactical team returned to the Capps’ home around 2 p.m.”
This was the fatal mistake made by Metro Nashville Police, along with ordering SWAT officers to the front door to place the explosive devices so they could blow it off its hinges as opposed to opening a line of communication with Capps. This decision also put the SWAT officers at risk.
Mark Capps had no previous criminal record or history of arrests. According to friends of Mark, he was never violent, and wouldn’t hurt anyone. He was in the midst of a metal health crisis. The wife who Capps allegedly kidnapped and who went to the police filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Metro Nashville Police Department. The captain in charge of SWAT was reassigned to the Parks Department, and according to sources, strategic changes were made to SWAT protocol due to the Mark Capps killing. But no disciplinary action was ever taken against the SWAT officer who killed Mark Capps, let alone a criminal investigation, or even a public statement about the mistakes made that lead to Mark Capps being killed.
Though a lot of artists, activists, journalists, and others are demanding that country music artists and entities speak out against the actions of ICE amid the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, mum was the word from all of these individuals when the media and high-profile performers could have raised awareness about what happened to someone in their own community who was killed senselessly. Nashville-based media outlets and journalists who profess being for social justice and civil rights ignored the killing of Mark Capps or even parroted out the Metro Nashville Police talking points unscrutinized. It took eight months for any outlet to even report out that a TBI officer had been in the home at the time of the supposed “kidnapping” after Saving Country Music had confirmed this information 15 days after the killing. The death of Mark Capps would have been the perfect time to illustrate how concerns about civil rights should be universal as opposed to polarizing or politically expedient for one’s pet issues, including the right for Americans to bear arms and be secure in their own homes. Alex Pretti put himself in harm’s way by being aggressive with police. So did Renee Good. Mark Capps had made threatening statements that resulted in police getting involved. But none of these individuals deserved to die, and all three of these instances deserve to to be at least thoroughly investigated by independent parties. This isn’t about playing stupid games, and winning stupid prizes. This is about the right of every American citizen to be secure in their person and have their civil rights respected. The killing of Mark Caps didn’t result in massive protests, a major public outcry, or even significant press coverage. It was virtually ignored to the great frustration of Mark’s friends and family. A four-time Gammy winner had been gunned down in his own home, and nobody seemed to care. But hopefully we all now know that if we don’t stand up for the civil rights of one, we don’t stand up for the civil rights of all, including ourselves. – – – – – – – – – – –
You’re right, it isn’t political. This isn’t about left or right, blue or red. This is about whether you are a decent human being. More than anything it’s really f—-ing sad to see what’s going on over there. Hey, maybe this sort of insanity is the sort of thing that can start to bring people on both sides together in a way that they haven’t been for years. Or maybe I’m just a foolish optimist.
I hate to say it because there’s so much right and good in this article but the fallback on this isn’t about politics undermines all hope for any solution. The problem we have here is armed agents of the state empowered to kill people without accountability. The police are unaccountable because of laws passed by politicians, because of endless propaganda about the inherent righteousness of all police killings, because unthinking support for state violence is the bedrock core belief of at the very least one political party, and oh yeah the creation of ice and the department of homeland security in response to 9/11. Now because of 9/11 Americans are shot dead in the streets for the crime of protest and lawfully possessing a gun. This is all politics.
The solution is also politics. You want to change any of this? You want accountability for state violence? That requires political action. It requires protest it requires electing politicians who change laws who will do real things to change all this. But to do any of this you have to get over this idea that “this isn’t about politics”. It is. If you want to solve anything you have to accept you’re a political animal by virtue of being alive. You have to yes vote you have to protest you have to give a damn. And you have to get over yourself. You have to “be political”.
Otherwise you’re just ceding the passing of laws and the wielding of power to those who have chosen to get involved and get political. And guess what? They love unaccountable state violence.
Without accepting this is politics you are just defaulting to “America’s problems are bad… but the causes are very good”.
I completely agree that the problems and solutions in these instances might be political. I guess what I was trying to convey in the opening paragraphs that this issue rises above political polarization, which often splits an issue down the middle 50/50, not allowing any consensus to be found, and thus, any solution agreed upon.
All forms of government rely on violence and the threat of violence in order to govern. This is true everywhere on earth, at all times throughout history, “democracies” included. Not that there any actual “democratic governments” – because the group of people who have all of the power and know all of the secrets (top secret/classified) are NEVER going to let a group of people that don’t have any real power and who aren’t even allowed to know ANY of the secrets, actually tell them what to do. That would be utter madness.
Saving Country Music has been my primary source for information about the killing of Mark Capps. It is very difficult to find any other information source about this killing and I can’t say I trust any of them.
Every Extrajudicial shooting should be treated by the press the same, with suspicion and continual investigation until the truth is exposed. At the same time it is up to all Citizens to ensure whatever lessons learned are implemented and enforced.
Thank you Saving Country Music for continuing to publish articles that mention Mark Capps and the local and state police efforts to hide the truth.
The Capps death was entirely unavoidable. He may have been high and in a highly erratic emotional state, but he was at home, alone. There were better ways to deal with the situation. The two deaths in Minneapolis, on the other hand, were entirely avoidable in that the two late professional protesters could have avoided their own demises by – in the first case – not antagonising field officers in a highly charged situation & then driving a vehicle at an armed officer, striking him; and – in the second – not antagonising field officers in a highly charged situation when carrying a gun (and, reportedly, additional ammunition) – who would be so foolish? Try poking a bear with a stick and see what happens. Legitimate protest is fair enough. If the deportation policy is to deal with (say) a Mexican woman who has worked illegally for 30 years and broken no law with the same priority as (say) an illegal immigrant child molester, then I disagree with the policy: of course deportation of the latter should be the priority. However the fact that both examples are illegal immigrants cannot be ignored: they have both broken the law. In my view, harmless self-supporting illegal immigrants – as long as the number can be contained – might be allotted a pass.
The woman who was shot in Minneapolis DID NOT attack an armed officer by driving her vehicle toward him. She was attempting to drive away from the scene. The video proves that.
I can’t emphasize enough the cope behind the idea that a majority or even a significant number of the protestors are paid professionals as opposed to everyday Americans out in the streets asserting their 1st Amendment rights. There is a strong negative sentiment behind how all of this is being handled, and it should not be surprising to anyone that everyday citizenry is stepping up to have their voices heard. Are there some paid, outside agitators? I would assume so. Alex Pretti was a professional VA nurse working in service of our country’s Veterans.
It’s really important that all of us don’t allow conventional media and social media to feed us what we want to hear as opposed to challenging our own belief systems. Otherwise we can fall for the rhetoric or outright propaganda that often seeks for us to dehumanize each other.
I support the 2nd amendment. If you think Pretti caused his own death you don’t support the 2nd amendment, it is as simple as that. If you claim to support the 2nd amendment and believe Pretti caused his own death then you are nothing but an ideologue (that is the kindest thing I can call you).
If I could change any one law in our country, it might be getting rid of 2A or scaling it down tremendously. But that’s my wish, not reality. 2A exists. So regardless of who it is and what they are doing, if someone has a gun on them legally, I support their right to have it and not be attacked by the government exercising their right.
I’m sorry, but are we just not holding officers (be it local, state or federal) to a higher standard now? Is that just gone from society?
Cause if so, that is pretty f’n sad. If the people working at Border Patrol/ICE/State Patrol/LEO are not equipped to handle stressful, chaotic situations then they shouldn’t be in those jobs/positions to start with.
I’m tired of this lazy narrative “their jobs are hard!!”. Nobody is denying that. But if a pilot crashes a plane because they freaked out during turbulence would you say “chill out guys, it is a hard job!”? If a doctor kills a family member on the operating table because they freaked out at the amount of blood would you say “chill out guys, being a surgeon is hard!”?
If the offers are not equipped to handle high-stress and chaotic moments they should not be on the force. They can go work some other job/career that suits their personality and training more.
This stupid, lazy narrative that we must support Law Enforcement – damn the facts – as a reaction to the equally stupid “Defund the Police” narrative that spun up out of George Floyd is insane to me.
That’s a bit of victim blaming. The Minneapolis deaths could also have been avoided by our government not sending masked, armed, patrols into the streets to bully and intimidate law abiding citizens.
Glad you wrote about this. It’s wild to me how utterly different this is from some of the high-profile police involved killings.
There will be no independent investigation, only a sham one. We do not know the identity of the agent who killed Pretti. Authorities are lying to our face and telling us not to believe our eyes. ICE recruits often from people with fringe views about our democracy, do not properly train them and give them a gun and list of people to terrorize without consequence.
As bad as some of the police killings are, we all generally agree that we need the police. They have formal training. They respond to actual dangerous situations. Occasionally, an officer makes a tragically poor decision. But when that happens, they are still investigated, often charged, fired in some cases and made known to the public.
What we are watching with ICE and how they behave is so far below the standard that police officers hold themselves to. The only plus side are the cell phone videos, which lets the public know how untrustworthy Noem, Patel, Bovino and the goon squad of an administration is. If they are willing to lie throw their teeth when we have video evidence proving otherwise, how can we possibly believe anything else they say.
And sorry in advance Trig, I didn’t mean to dismiss this as separate from the Capps killing. I was speaking about police violence more generally.
The most astounding part of this all is how willing the government is to lie to our faces about what we witnessed.
Anyone who watches the videos and blames Alex Pretti for his own murder rather than recognizing a state (federal) sponsored execution of a citizen by modern day brownshirts, I don’t know what else to say but to quote Orwell.
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
Lots of things are all true at once:
1. America is an extremely violent place. And no, it’s not “just the guns.”
2. Americans have way too much tolerance for cops killing people for reasons both justifiable and questionable.
3. Americans have way too much tolerance for people fighting cops and otherwise resisting arrest.
4. Minneapolis is currently in the midst of an insurrection against the duly-enacted laws of the United States of America and her duly-elected President.
Points one, two and three have all been true for generations if not since the 1600s. Only point four is genuinely news. I’m quite confident that Alex Pretti will get the same justice that Vicki Weaver and Ashli Babbitt got. I’m not at all confident that Minneapolis will be brought back into the Union.
4. ice is currently ignoring the duly-enacted laws of the united states (please see: 1st amendment, 2nd amendment, 4th amendment)
ashli babbitt was literally crawling through a window to the senate floor while a violent mob attempted to halt senate proceedings at the behest of trump.
alex pretti was filming an ice officer toss a woman to the ground while legally carrying a firearm he was not bradishing.
What a bizarre way to shoehorn two completely different cases together. One died because cops came into his home and killed him under shady circumstances. The other died because he was being a dumbass and agitating and interfering with lawful police activity while being armed. These are not the same.
“no dems cared about the death of laken riley, whomever, why didn’t the protest in the streets for her? etc.”
1 – not murdered by government, 2 – murderer caught, tried, jailed (i.e. proper constitutional proceedings followed)
Source: savingcountrymusic.com