GUNSHow Tennessee’s Justice System Allows Dangerous People to Keep Guns — With Deadly Outcomes
Michaela Carter was one of at least 75 people killed in domestic violence shootings in Nashville since 2007. Nearly 40% were shot by people who were legally barred from having a gun.
Michaela Carter felt like she was being hunted.
She fled her family’s home on Nov. 15, 2021, and called 911 with her mother, pulling into the parking lot of a discount store in southeast Nashville, Tennessee, to await the police.
“Are they sending people?” Carter can be heard asking her mom on the 911 call.
Her mother, Kimberly Jones-Mbuyi, told the dispatcher that Carter’s estranged husband had just been seen walking around a family member’s apartment complex with a gun.
James Leggett had gotten out of jail 10 days earlier. He’d been locked up since Carter reported to police that he’d repeatedly hit her in the face with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s. Since he was released, he’d started calling her and sending increasingly desperate text messages.
The night before, he posted on Facebook: “Somebody with nothing to lose won’t give a fuck when shit gets real.”
Then, that morning: “Today is the day.”
Federal and state laws should have protected Carter by preventing Leggett, who had a felony record, from having a gun. And Carter had an extra safeguard: an order of protection against Leggett. That meant he was barred from contacting her, coming near her or having a firearm. According to the law, if he violated the order, he would be arrested.
But weak oversight of gun laws allowed him to get a weapon. And when the officers arrived, they said they didn’t have enough evidence to prove that Leggett had violated the order.
The officers escorted Carter and her mother home. Carter had packed a go-bag, and she wanted to get her ID and the paper copy of her protection order. One of the officers, who was still in training, did a sweep of the yard.
According to Carter’s family, the officers suggested that if she saw Leggett with a gun, she should try to take his photo.
Then the police left.
Ten minutes later, according to police records, Leggett busted down the door and shot Carter.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department declined to comment because of a pending lawsuit filed against it by Carter’s family. An internal investigation found the officers broke department protocols for domestic violence cases.
