The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has determined the gun a man allegedly brandished before a Memphis police officer shot and killed him Thursday, Dec. 13, was a BB gun.

The incident began shortly before 10 p.m. Thursday, when police were called to James Road and Homewood, a quarter of a mile west of Austin Peay, for reports that a man was pointing a gun at motorists.

“At some point after officers arrived, the circumstances of which are still being investigated, the situation escalated, resulting in one of the officers firing at the subject, striking and killing him,” the TBI public information office posted on Twitter. 

The man, later identified as 42-year-old Andre Horton, was taken to Regional One Health, where he was pronounced dead.

The BB gun was found at the scene after Horton was shot, TBI officials said in an update about the fatal shooting.

TBI Agents Investigating Officer-Involved Shooting in Memphis https://t.co/2SsXwDOARr

— TBI (@TBInvestigation) December 14, 2018

Memphis police have not released the names of the officer involved in the shooting and the other officers who responded to the call. Memphis police said the officer involved in the shooting has been relieved of duty pending the outcome of the investigation. 

Keeping you informed.

At approximately 9:54 p.m., Memphis Police Officers responded to multiple calls of a male in the roadway who was armed and was pointing a gun at motorist as they drove by while in the area... https://t.co/ReeZYI4Bz2

— Memphis Police Dept (@MEM_PoliceDept) December 14, 2018

This is the second recent officer-involved shooting where a BB gun was wielded by a suspect.

Nancy Jane Lewellyn, 59, was armed with a BB gun when authorities said she pointed it at Shelby County sheriff’s deputies outside of her Lakeland home in 2017. Lewellyn was shot and died at Regional One.

In March 2018, Lewellyn’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the sheriff’s office after the shooting.

In Thursday’s incident, no further details were released by the TBI about the shooting in which Horton was killed.

Horton’s family told area television stations he had been dealing with mental health issues recently. He was the father of six children.

According to court records, Horton has been arrested several times dating back to 2001. He pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary in 2001 and was sentenced to three years at the Shelby County Correctional Center. He was released on Jan. 26, 2003.

Family members on Facebook said this is the second time a police shooting has impacted members of Horton’s family. Horton’s adult daughter is the step-daughter of Toby Bailey, the man killed two months ago by police in Bartlett.

Her mother, Toya Jacobs-Bailey posted on Facebook: “How did the same identical death play out on my husband and child’s father but different scenarios. How. How. How. Unreal.”

She also wrote: “Two separate killings both picked up by TBI. Two children without their dad. God this is so unfair and unreal.”

This is the seventh officer-involved shooting and sixth fatal shooting by police this year in Memphis and Shelby County. 

The other shootings occurred:

• Jan. 17: Brian Gregory, 34, was shot and killed in a vehicle by Shelby County Sheriff deputies on Decatur Street in North Memphis. 
• April 21: Terrence Carlton, 25, was shot and killed by a Memphis police officer on Summer Avenue. 
• July 25: DMario Perkins, 29, was shot and killed by Memphis police on Mitchell Road near South Third.
• Sept.17: Martavious Banks, 25, was shot on Gill Avenue in South Memphis by a Memphis police officer. Banks survived, but it was later learned that three officers involved in the shooting turned off their body cameras during the incident. 
  The critical shooting was turned over to the TBI, but in the past, the TBI only investigated fatal officer-involved shootings in Memphis and Shelby County at the request of the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office. 
  The Banks shooting spurred Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer and Memphis City Councilman Edmund Ford Jr. to recently sponsor a joint resolution in hopes the Tennessee General Assembly will pass legislation to change the way officer-involved shootings are handled by the TBI.
• Oct. 3: Toby Bailey, 38, was shot and killed by Bartlett police after a domestic violence incident at a home on Stage Road near the Memphis-Bartlett line. 
• Oct. 17: Keyshon Parham, 18, was killed during an altercation with Shelby County Sheriff’s deputies and Memphis police officers as they attempted to serve a warrant at the Eden at Watersedge apartment complex in Southeast Memphis.

Nationwide, 947 people have been shot and killed by police in 2018, with 24 fatal officer-involved shootings in Tennessee, according to a Washington Post database that tracks police shootings.