Sheriff’s deputy killed, four injured
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Officers responding to a call Friday morning were turned back by heavy gunfire when they tried to approach the lakeside home. The 16-year-old had semiautomatic weapons with multiple 30-round magazines, said Knox County Sheriff Tim Hutchison.
“The only thing we’ve got out of the house is gunfire,” said Knox County Chief Deputy Dwight VanDeVate. “We are still hopeful we get some positive outcome, but we have had absolutely no success whatsoever in establishing contact with the suspect.”
Police identified the teen as Michael Harvey.
Officials said they did not plan on moving in on the house until Saturday morning at the earliest.
“At this point, the only response we see out of him is when he starts shooting at officers he sees,” Hutchison said. “We hope he will come to some realization that he needs to come out and he needs to surrender.”
The length of the standoff prompted authorities to rotate officers in and out of shifts, and some of the teen’s relatives were at the house trying to coax Harvey into coming out, a spokeswoman with the Loudon County sheriff’s department said early Saturday.
Police said the boy attacked his mother during a Friday morning fight, then fired on officers responding to a 911 call from a neighbor’s house.
Deputy Jason Scott, a three-year veteran of the Loudon County sheriff’s department, was shot four times. Four other officers received minor injuries from debris when the teenager shot at them as they hid behind a woodpile. The officers have been treated and are fine, police said. The boy’s mother was treated at a local hospital and released.
“Deputies answered the call not knowing there were any weapons in the house. Officer Scott was the first one to arrive and was shot as he stepped out of the car,” said Loudon County Sheriff Tim Guider.
A SWAT team once made it into the garage before turning back, and robots sent into the house were rebuffed by obstacles inside. Officers also shot tear gas inside the house but there was no response, and the teen did not answer calls or efforts to reach him through a PA system.
Two deputies initially answered the domestic call at the home. The second officer to arrive saw Scott’s body, retreated as shots were fired and called for backup.
Officers were able to remove the body of the slain officer, whose wife is expecting their first child. Through tears, Guider described Scott as “a wonderful young man, very lively, very friendly, very outgoing.”