Deputy shot four times, killed Friday
By Duncan Mansfield, The Associated Press
Lenoir City, Tenn. (AP) -- Scores of officers surrounded a lakeside home Saturday in a standoff with a heavily armed teenager who killed a sheriff’s deputy and kept officers at bay for more than a day.
Authorities said they had not had any response from the 16-year-old for several hours and were uncertain whether he was still alive.
“We have a little bit of information that may indicate he is alive, however, we can’t confirm that,” Loudon County Sheriff Tim Guider said Saturday.
The teen had semiautomatic weapons with multiple 30-round magazines and fired at officers when they approached the house Friday, said Knox County Sheriff Tim Hutchison.
Police fired tear gas into the house and used “flash bang” grenades Saturday morning, and had tried contacting the teen during the night with public address loudspeakers.
“We’re doing everything we know possible to get some response from this young man,” Guider said.
Police identified the teen as Michael Harvey.
Guider said Harvey may have had access to scuba tanks that could allow him to avoid breathing the tear gas.
“We feel if he did use those they would be empty by now, but he may have other devices that we’re unaware of,” the sheriff said.
The confrontation started Friday morning when officers went to investigate a domestic violence complaint from the boy’s mother, who had fled to a neighbor’s house. She allegedly was attacked with a pipe when she refused to let the boy drive to school after drinking the night before.
Two deputies were sent to the house. The first to arrive, Deputy Jason Scott, was shot four times when he stepped out of his car, Guider said.
The second officer saw Scott’s body, retreated under fire and called for backup. Four other officers suffered minor injuries from debris when the teenager shot at them as they hid behind a woodpile. The officers were treated and are fine, police said.
A SWAT team once made it into the garage before turning back, and robots sent into the house were blocked by obstacles.
The boy’s mother was treated at a hospital and released.
Scott was a three-year veteran of the Loudon County sheriff’s department. His wife is expecting their first child.
Through tears, Guider described Scott as “a wonderful young man, very lively, very friendly, very outgoing.”