Adam Tamburin

atamburin@tennessean.com

Moments before Xavier McDonald died in a shootout with police, his mother, Natacha McDonald, pleaded with the 16-year-old to surrender.

The teen had barricaded himself in the bathroom of a Nashboro Village condo Sunday night when police arrived as part of an investigation into an armed robbery. He had a semiautomatic gun tucked into his waistband, police said.

Through the bathroom door, Sgt. Michelle Jones could hear the muffled sound of McDonald's mother sobbing over a speaker phone, Jones told detectives later.

"You need to come on out. Stop doing this. This is not worth it," Jones heard the mother say, according to her interview with investigators after the shooting.

Jones, who led police efforts to persuade the teen to surrender his weapon, was recently promoted from the Metro Nashville Police Department's Youth Services Division, where she spent years helping troubled teens like McDonald, who had a record of juvenile offenses. Jones talked with a barricaded McDonald for about 40 minutes Sunday night while officers surrounded the condo.

Evidence from the robbery, which took place near the condo, had led investigators to the location. Once Jones got inside the condo, she saw a debit card that allegedly belonged to the victim. Police now believe McDonald was one of two gunmen who robbed the victim earlier that day.

"Come on out. We can do this, we can do this," Jones urged him, according to her interview. Police released a tape of the interview Monday.

His answer was unrelenting: "Y'all are going to have to shoot me."

When McDonald ultimately stepped to the front door of the condo around 7:25 p.m., an officer made an unsuccessful attempt to subdue him with a stun gun. Jones said she watched McDonald turn, pull his revolver and open fire, hitting Officer John Downs, an 18-year veteran of the force. It is unclear why the stun gun was not effective.

Four officers fired on McDonald as he ran from the front door. He was hit multiple times and collapsed, dying in the parking lot.

Downs was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the leg. He underwent exploratory surgery Monday; doctors expect more surgeries during his recovery.

Police rarely release interview footage tied to an ongoing investigation. During the press conference, Police Chief Steve Anderson and department spokesman Don Aaron said they broke with precedent in this case to convey their efforts to take McDonald, a black teen, into custody without using lethal force.

"Michelle Jones has dedicated her police department career to trying to help young people," Aaron said of the black officer. "She did everything within her power to help Xavier McDonald. Unfortunately, he did not let her help him on Sunday." The white officers who fired Sunday night — Lt. Ken Spencer, Sgt. Robert Nielsen, Sgt. Brian Gottschall and Officer Brandon Vance — are on routine administrative assignment while the investigation continues.

"In this particular case, this needs to be set aside from anything else that occurred or is occurring in this country," Aaron said, referring to recent incidents of alleged police brutality in Ferguson, Mo., New York City and Cleveland. "What you have here is a gunman who refused all efforts to bring him into custody, who refused continuous pleadings from Sgt. Jones to surrender and a person who opened fire on a Metro police officer after the department attempted to take him into custody with less than lethal force with a Taser. The circumstances here are starkly different from other situations in recent times in the United States."

A troubled past

McDonald's final moments were the lethal culmination of years of legal and behavioral trouble, according to public records and accounts from those who knew him.

On Dec. 7, the teenager ran away from home after threatening his mother, according to police records. The two began arguing after he arrived home after curfew.

McDonald's mother spotted a box of bullets in her son's pocket, police said. They fought over the bullets, eventually spilling them on the floor. He bent over to scoop some of them up and then threatened to shoot her before fleeing, police said.

McDonald had recently been released from Woodland Hills Youth Development Center, a lock-up usually reserved for juveniles who have at least three felony convictions. Aaron said McDonald had been at Woodland Hills from January 2013 to September of this year. The extent of his juvenile record is not known.

Before his death, McDonald had transitioned to after-care with the Department of Children's Services, according to agency spokesman Rob Johnson. The program has case managers check in with a youth and his or her family to see if he or she is in school and receiving the necessary services.

McDonald was enrolled in a Metro Schools program that helps teens transition from juvenile custody. A mentor who once worked with McDonald remembered him as courteous but struggling with anger management.

"He wished he could control his head better," said Ron Johnson, director of the REAL Program at the Oasis Center for at-risk youth. McDonald had been in legal trouble as early as age 12, when he was put in touch with the Oasis Center and attended some group discussions.

"He called me a couple times and he'd be upset, and I'd always remind him, no matter how upset you get, you always have a choice."

'Multiple tragedies'

Anderson said Monday that the department and the city are facing "multiple tragedies" in the aftermath of the shooting. Downs' future with the police department is unclear as he faces a long recovery.

He added that his thoughts and condolences are with the McDonald family.

"The mother has lost a son," he said. "Whatever the circumstances, she has lost a son."

Staff writers Tony Gonzalez, Anita Wadhwani and Holly Meyer contributed to this report. Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets.

Mayor visits injured officer

Nashville Mayor Karl Dean made a hospital visit Sunday evening to speak with injured Metro police officer John Downs, who was shot earlier in the evening by a 16-year-old — an altercation that resulted in officers shooting and killing the teen.

Dean, in a statement to The Tennessean, said he told Downs "how much I appreciate what he and the rest of our police officers do every day, literally putting their lives on the line to keep our city safe."

"I have the highest confidence in our police department, led by Chief Steve Anderson, to do the right thing," Dean said. "Our thoughts are with Officer Downs and his family. We're grateful that he's alive, and we extend our prayers for a speedy and full recovery.

"I know from my days as a public defender how young lives can go off course. As a city, we need to keep working to keep our young people moving in a positive direction. That takes all of us: government, schools, churches, nonprofits and the business community."

— Joey Garrison