A man wanted on outstanding felony warrants was shot and killed by Sullivan County deputies early Sunday morning outside a Kingsport apartment complex, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is now working to piece together exactly what happened in the moments before gunfire broke out. Joshua Delp was found armed when deputies arrived, and four of them opened fire, striking him. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The shooting happened just before 8 a.m. in the 1000 block of Bloomingdale Pike, according to WJHL. Deputies with the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office had gone to the apartment complex after receiving information that Delp, who had outstanding felony warrants, was there, per a TBI release carried by einnews.com. As WZTV reported, deputies responded to the complex after a report that Delp had been seen there.
Upon arrival, deputies located Delp armed with a gun, the release states. The situation then escalated, resulting in four deputies firing shots that struck him. No deputies were injured during the encounter, according to the same account.
TBI Steps In to Reconstruct the Encounter
TBI special agents are now collecting evidence and conducting interviews to determine the sequence of events that led to the shooting, the release notes. The bureau is investigating at the request of 2nd Judicial District Attorney General Barry Staubus, a standard step whenever a Tennessee law enforcement officer is involved in a fatal shooting.
The TBI has said it will not identify the officers involved in the shooting, the station's report notes. Beyond confirming that deputies found Delp armed and that the confrontation escalated quickly, officials have not detailed what specifically triggered the gunfire, and that part of the encounter remains under review.
A Busy Weekend for TBI Shooting Investigations
The Kingsport case was one of several officer-involved shootings TBI agents were handling around the state in the same stretch. Just two days earlier, agents began investigating a separate overnight shooting in Carter County at the request of 1st Judicial District Attorney General Steve Finney, according to TBINewsroom.com. And on the same Sunday morning as the Kingsport shooting, the TBI was also investigating a second, unrelated officer-involved shooting in Knox County, as reported by cedarnews.net.
What Happens to the Records Now
Most TBI investigative files are confidential under Tennessee law, but state law carves out an exception for fatal officer-involved shootings that occur on or after May 4, 2017, allowing those investigative records to eventually become public, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. That provision is spelled out in state statute 38-8-311, which governs when records in these cases must be released. No timeline has been given for when the Kingsport investigation will conclude or when any findings might be made public.
