KINGSPORT, Tenn. — State agents are now looking into a Sunday morning encounter in Kingsport that ended with Sullivan County deputies shooting and killing a man they had come to find on felony warrants.
According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office deputies drove to an apartment complex on the 1000 block of Bloomingdale Pike shortly before 8 a.m. Sunday. They had been told that Joshua Delp, a man wanted on felony warrants, was staying there.
Delp had a gun when deputies reached him, according to the TBI. Agents say the encounter turned violent for reasons they are still working to understand, and four deputies fired, hitting Delp. He died where he fell. No deputy was hurt.
Barry Staubus, district attorney general for the 2nd Judicial District, asked the TBI to take the case. Agents are gathering evidence and interviewing people to build their own account of what led to the gunfire.
Once that work is done, the findings go to the district attorney general’s office. The TBI describes its role as fact-finding only. It does not rule on whether an officer’s actions were justified; that call belongs to the prosecutor who requested the review.
The TBI also does not release the names of officers in shootings like this one. It leaves that decision to the department involved, in this case the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office.
The state agency says any updates on the case will be posted on its newsroom site as the review moves forward, and the sheriff’s office has not yet released its own account of the shooting.
Section: More Bristol TN crime news
Filed under: Bristol TN Crime News
