By Robert Wilson
The Knoxville-News Sentinel
MARYVILLE, Tenn. — Leroy Hickman Jr. had made clear to family members his intention not to be taken into police custody alive.
And he wasn’t.
Blount County Sheriff Jim Berrong said Monday that Hickman, 61,whohadbeencharacterizedto the sheriff’s office as “unstable,” died in a fusillade of bullets from deputies who had been sent to his home to arrest him in connection with domestic assault charges.
Berrong said Hickman had made “aggressive” moves toward the officers with his right arm extended in their direction and that he failed to heed repeated demands that he take his handout of his pocket.
It was apparently when one of the officers on the scene at 11:15 p.m. Sunday chambered a shotgun round that Hickman’s aggressiveness increased, spurring two of the officers to open fire with their sidearms, the sheriff said.
Deputies were made aware of Hickman’s threats of violence against them before they went to the home on Grove Street that Hickman shared with his wife, daughter and grandson, Berrong said. Hickman’s daughter had provided them with a handwritten statement, in which she said he had told her and his wife that if they called police he would “make us famous.”
He told them, the statement said, that he had “an arsenal” and would not be taken alive.
Berrong said that officers met 1½hoursbeforethearrestattempt to formulate a plan and “map the area."OfficershadbeentoldHickman had numerous weapons in the house, and the plan was to “draw him outside” away from the guns and the family members he had threatened and allegedly assaulted.
Berrong said Hickman came out to one Blount County Sheriff’s Office cruiser and faced four officers, Sgt. Doug Moore and Deputies Paige Craig, Robert Berkley and Matthew Gilmore.
Hickman refused to remove his hand from his jacket pocket. He extended his right arm in the deputies’ direction, Berrong said.
When the shotgun made its distinctive chuck-chuck sound, the sheriff said, Hickman swung his arm in that direction, and Craig and Moore fired.
Berrong said 12 shots were fired, all from pistols, and that Hickman was struck once in the head. Other shots hit him in the torso, some in the back.
Hickman was caught in something like a crossfire, Berrong said, explaining the wounds to the back. The suspect, he said, was not running away. The shots were fired from seven to 10 feet away, he said.
Berrong said the area where the shooting occurred was welllighted.
Hickman fell into a ditch, Berrong said, and when he was rolled over a loaded .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol was found under him. There were nine long guns and two more pistols in the Grove Street house, he said.
Hickman was pronounced dead at Blount Memorial Hospital, where he was taken by Rural/ Metro ambulance.
Hickman was a Maryville Police Department officer from 1969-72, said Pam Arnett, public information officer for the city of Maryville.
All four officers are on paid administrative leave pending an investigation of the case.TheTennessee Bureau of Investigation is participating in the probe, Berrong said.
The sheriff expressed sympathy for Hickman’s family.
Copryight 2008 Knoxville-News Sentinel