Tennessee sheriff’s deputies are refusing to release details as to why they shot and killed an 18-year-old Black man during an early morning raid other than he “displayed a firearm” — which may or may not be true judging by the agency’s history of lies.
The Knox County Sheriff’s Office shot and killed Daevon Montez Saint-Germain on Jan. 3 after raiding his family’s home at 7:30 a.m. with an alleged search warrant.
But almost a week later, the sheriff’s office has refused to specify the reasons behind the search warrant.
Instead, they have turned the investigation over to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, which is also refusing to release any details about the shooting under the rationale that it is still under investigation.
But Saint-Germain’s family and friends are demanding answers and accountability over the shooting that resulted in the slaying of a young Black man who was on his way to becoming a commercial truck driver.
However, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office does not equip its SWAT team with body cameras, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel, which also states the neighboring Knoxville Police Department does require its SWAT team to wear body cameras.
The Knox County Sheriff’s Office was actually one of the first law enforcement agencies in the state to issue body cameras, while the city’s police department waited another five years before issuing the cameras to its officers.
“But since then, the sheriff’s office has a history of downplaying use of force captured on deputies’ bodycams,” the News Sentinel reported.
“And in one case from 2021, KCSO denied having bodycam video of a raid even though it had voluminous recordings. In another case from 2021, KCSO reported it had no video from an arrest, but later produced a video clip,” the newspaper added.
Over the years, the News Sentinel has been reporting on the lack of transparency from the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, revealing that the agency even hides body camera footage from the Knox County District Attorney’s Office.
“The sheriff’s office failure to comply with the law raises questions about how often it conceals video evidence and questions about prosecutions that rely on the agency’s investigations,” according to an article from April 2024.
“And it reveals the consequences of what happens when one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the state operates with zero oversight.”
No Transparency
In the aftermath following the shooting death of Saint-Germain, the sheriff’s office has been vague about whether there is available body camera footage from the raid, neither confirming or denying existence of body camera footage.
And a public records request by Atlanta Black Star for available videos, photos and documents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations related to the case was denied, citing the investigation as well as the fact we are based outside the state of Tennessee.
Also, the two search warrants remain sealed in the Knox County Criminal Court, making it unavailable to the public, according to the News Sentinel.
Saint-Germain’s grandmother, Ernestine Silver, said deputies barged into the home, refusing to show the warrants, handcuffing the teen’s mother and ordering the children outside of the home before entering the teen’s room where he had been sleeping, WBIR reported.
Just over an hour after the shooting, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office issued the following statement on its Facebook page:
Preliminary information from the scene reveals officers were serving a search warrant. The suspect refused to follow commands while officers were attempting to bring him into custody and displayed a firearm, at which time officers discharged their weapons. The officers involved in this incident are uninjured; however, the suspect is deceased.
The teen’s parents, Raymond Saint-Germain and Savanna Christy Siler Saint-Germain, have not responded to interview requests from Atlanta Black Star to obtain more details, and neither parent has spoken to local media, perhaps under legal advice from an attorney.
But one of his best friends, a white teen named Logan Butler, remembered Daevon as one of the few students who befriended him at South-Doyle High School when he first moved to Tennessee two years ago.
“I originally moved here from Massachusetts about two years ago and Daevon was one of the first people I had ever spoken to,” the 17-year-old boy told the Knoxville News Sentinel during a protest Tuesday outside a Knoxville City Council meeting.
“He was just so outgoing and he was the only person that listened to what I had to say. We skipped school to buy this box truck and after he graduated we were going to go into business. Then the police came and just shot him out of absolutely nowhere. Just shocking,” Butler added.
Siam Lyabili, 29, a Black man who also attended the protest, believes the shooting was just another example of racism within law enforcement.
“I feel the whole idea of justice isn’t there for everybody and some people are looked at more like a threat, especially young Black men,” he told the News Sentinel.
“He was just a child,” said Jessica Thompson, 40, who remembered Daevon working at Taco Bell and recording videos with his friend, Logan.
“We were all touched by him at some point or in some aspect of our lives.”
