By Lance Coleman
The Knoxville News-Sentinel
LOUDON — Since March 12, 2004, Blount County Sheriff James Berrong has always made a point of taking Loudon County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Tony Aikens’ phone calls.
It was on that day that Loudon County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Scott was shot to death by 16-year-old Michael Harvey while responding to a domestic violence call at the Harvey family home overlooking Fort Loudoun Lake.
“I get chill bumps speaking of that day,” Berrong said Tuesday. “I was coming to work that morning and got a call from Chief Deputy Tony Aikens from the Loudon County Sheriff’s Office, and he told me what was going on and that they needed help.
“We assembled our SWAT team and went down there and stayed with them all the way through the end. It was such a sad situation. You would be crying one minute and trying to make a decision the next.”
Said Loudon County Sheriff Tim Guider: “It was just a very, very sad and emotional day.”
A ceremony to remember Scott is scheduled for 9 a.m. today at a memorial monument at the Loudon County Justice Center.
Guider said the morning Scott was killed that E-911 received a call about a juvenile arguing with his mother because she was making him ride the bus instead of driving to school.
“He hit her in the head with a fence post,” Guider said. “She went to a neighbor’s house and called 911.”
Guider said Scott was closest to the Harvey residence and arrived first.
“You would never believe he would step out of his car and be exposed to what he was exposed to,” the sheriff said of the high-powered rifle the teen used to shoot him four times in the torso.
Personnel from Blount, Knox, Roane and Wilson county sheriff’s offices as well as the Knoxville, Alcoa Loudon and Lenoir City police departments, among others, sent personnel to assist Loudon County in what became a 30-hour standoff.
Assistant Chief Deputy Jimmy Davis said Scott pulled up to the Harvey place at 8:29 a.m., and Deputy Chad Estes pulled up at 8:30 a.m. Estes saw Scott on the ground and laughed because it appeared he had stumbled while getting out of his cruiser. Then, Harvey, the son of prosecutor Frank Harvey, fired on Estes, blowing out his cruiser’s front window. Estes jumped in his car and backed out of the driveway at such a high speed that Deputy Bobby Hamilton saw smoke as he pulled up at 8:31 a.m., Davis said.
“The last words Jason said were, ‘Watch the stick in the driveway,’” Davis said.
Guider said gunfire rang out for several hours. It ended 30 hours later when deputies entered the house and found Michael Harvey dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
But the ordeal wasn’t over, as Guider had to bury his deputy and console Scott’s widow, Joni Scott, who gave birth to their daughter 10 days later.
Copyright 2014 the Knoxville News-Sentinel