Grammy Award-winning recording engineer Mark Capps was gunned down Thursday (Jan. 5) by Nashville’s SWAT team.
A spokesman said a SWAT team killed the producer after he brandished a weapon at his front door, after police responded to an incident in which he allegedly held his wife and stepdaughter captive at gunpoint as Variety reports.
It won the Grammy for Best Polka Album four years in a row, from 2005 to 2008, as detailed on the Recording Academy’s website.
The 54-year-old producer has worked with artists such as the Dixie Chicks, Amy Grant, Kenny Rogers and Neil Diamond, according to the discography on his website. He was the son of Grand Ole Opry guitarist and Musicians Hall of Famer Jimmy Capps, who died in 2020.
On Thursday, the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department released body camera footage of the shooting: “Mark Capps, 54, who was wanted on pending felony and aggravated assault charges, was fatally wounded by a SWAT officer this afternoon Thursday after opening the sudden opening. front door of his house armed with a gun,” the video description reads.
A police spokesman, Don Aaron, told reporters that Capps brought his wife, 60, and stepdaughter, 23, into the family room at gunpoint at 3 a.m., and “told them if they asked for somebody, I would make them kill.”
“They were very afraid of him and his actions towards him not to let them go.”
After Capps fell asleep, police said the women escaped to file a complaint at the Hermitage police station.
Aaron also said that “three SWAT members were trying to start work outside the house, Capp didn’t see, he opened the front door with a gun drawn” (via Independent).
He said a yellow agent “show me your hands” before “considering Capps’ movements to be an immediate and imminent threat”, declaring that “Capps died on the spot”.
The producer’s death came two days after his older brother, Jeffrey Allen Capps, died on Tuesday (January 3).
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