Gunshots fired

It's been a week since a rather disturbing incident happened in our neighborhood, and it's one I won't soon forget.

I was sitting at our kitchen table working on my dissertation, where I could see the road down below that is the entrance to our subdivision. I heard a noise that sounded like a car backfiring, but I didn't think much about it. A few minutes later, and I'm not sure how many minutes exactly, I noticed two Knox County Sheriff's deputies pull into our neighborhood with their sirens blaring. They pulled over at the end of the first intersection and were clearly in a hurry to get out of their cars.

I called David into the kitchen and we watched as more deputies drove in, and we could tell something wasn't right. We used our binoculars to see better since we live a ways up the hill. We could see deputies running, and getting larger guns out of their trunks, but we still couldn't see what or who they were going after. Then we heard a series of gunshots...not just a few but at least 10 or more. I can remember asking David during the gunshots, what in the world could be happening? We could only see the deputies running, but we never saw who or what they were shooting at during this period.

By this point, more sheriff's deputies were driving into the neighborhood, and next came an ambulance and firetruck. We didn't know what was happening, but it was obvious someone had been shot. After a few minutes, knoxnews.com posted a very brief story online about deputies firing shots at a West Knoxville man who was threatening to commit suicide.

During the next few hours, more official cars arrived along with satellite trucks from the three local TV stations in Knoxville. There were around 15 deputy cars and other SUVs with flashing lights. It was surreal to see this happening, and the photo above doesn't quite capture all the traffic and uncertainty about the events. Initial reports said a man was trying to break into a house and then threatened suicide and a call to 911 was placed.

I was surprised that a couple of the local TV stations didn't add this information to their web sites as quickly as they should since they could easily confirm the information with the sheriff's office. It took one station more than two hours to post any story about the shooting. As a journalism educator, I'm constantly telling my students that the web is driving news. People go online to get their news first, and if it's not there, they go to another site, which is what I did.

You can read more about what happened at www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/feb/25/three-deputies-involved-in-fatal-shooting and a follow-up story at
www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/mar/01/3-knox-deputies-fatal-shooting-back-work/. To summarize, a woman called 911 to say her husband was suicidal, and she was afraid for her life. She stayed on the phone with 911 until deputies arrived. Deputies met the man outside, and he started firing, so they fired back. He later died at UT Medical Center.

While I didn't know this family personally, we see their company trucks coming in and out of the neighborhood on a daily basis. When we go on walks, we've seen them washing those trucks, so it's hard and sad to believe that a life was lost.

I realize this is a personal family matter, and I don't need to know why this man acted the way he did. His wife is a widow now, and his family is without him. It's just another example that shows how quickly life can change in a matter of seconds.