Columbia, TN - Maury Co. Deputy Assaulted - Broken Nose - Lost Teeth by Burglary Suspects - Patrol Car Stolen - Chase - Rolled Over - Totaled Patrol Car
Attempted Murder Charges
The Daily Herald
12-15-06
Two seemingly cooperative, polite suspects, believed to be responsible for
minor burglaries in the Fred White Road area, assaulted and overpowered a Maury
County Sheriff’s Department investigator Thursday, stole his car and wrecked it
on Groveland Ridge Road, Sheriff Enoch George said.
The incident started about 3:20 p.m. Thursday as Investigator Aaron Davis was
driving 18-year-old Timothy Carl Johnson, of Ozark, Ala., and a 17-year-old from
Columbia through the southeastern part of the county on Fred White Road, George
said.
Maury County Sheriff's deputies investigate the sight of a single-vehicle
roll-over which involved a stolen county vehicle. Deputies were also removing
their equipment from the overturned CID car.
The two men had been enrolled at a drug rehabilitation program at New Life
Church on Cayce Lane, George said. They slipped away from the church Wednesday
night and burglarized cars and outbuildings, George said.
Vanderbilt Life Flight crew members ready Timothy Carl Johnson, 18, for
transport to Vanderbilt following a roll-over accident off of Groverland Ridge
Road. Johnson had assaulted a county detective and stolen the officer’s
county car.
Davis had captured the two earlier Thursday and had interrogated them, the
sheriff said. He drove them back into the area asking them about the thefts.
Randy Short, 55, tells what he saw of the incident involving the assault on a
county detective and the theft of his county CID vehicle to Andy Jackson
Thursday evening.
“The two suspects were showing Davis where some of the burglaries had occurred,”
George said. “The two were being very nice and cooperative, saying ‘Yes, sir,’
and ‘No, sir,’ to Davis’ questions.”
While the investigator was talking, Johnson picked up a piece of steel from a
trailer hitch Davis had in the back seat of the squad car and allegedly hit
Davis in the face with it, George said.
“Davis made sure he secured his gun so they couldn’t get it, exited the car and
told the two not to move,” George said.
Instead of obeying the order, Johnson jumped over the front seat and drove
the car away, George said. Davis jumped on top of the car’s hood and tried to
hang on as the car sped away, the sheriff said.
“When the car started speeding up and Davis thought he was going to get even
more seriously injured, he rolled off the car’s hood,” George said.
Just then, Randy Short, an employee of the Tennessee Pencil Company in
Lewisburg, drove by in his truck.
“I left work early, something I’ll never do again,” Short said. “I turned off
State Route 50 onto Fred White Road and saw what looked like kids scuffling in
the car. As I got closer, I saw Investigator Davis, with his gun drawn,
trying to get on the car hood just as it began pulling away.
“They slung him off the vehicle, and he rolled 15-20 yards on the pavement.
They drove off and left him there. I pulled up and saw that he was bleeding
pretty bad. It looked like his nose had been broken.
“He told me they had stolen his car and I told him, ‘Well come on, let’s go.
We’ll follow them.”
Short said Davis called for help on his cell phone, and they continued to follow
the suspects as they turned onto NewCut Road. They followed from a distance, he
said. At one point it looked like the two could cut the suspects off, but they
were going too fast, Short said.
“They were moving pretty good in that police car and at a small curve they
lost control and swerved off the road and rolled down an embankment,” he said.
Short said he was impressed with Davis’ professionalism during the incident.
“He never paid very much attention to his own injuries, but was mostly concerned
about getting the two suspects medical attention after they wrecked,” Short
said.
Johnson was pinned underneath the overturned county car. He was extricated
and flown by helicopter to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
The 17-year-old was taken by ambulance to Maury Regional Hospital for treatment
of his injuries.
The two will be charged with burglary, with several other charges pending. Lt.
Jim Brady, head of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Sheriff’s
Department said the two will likely be charged with attempted first degree
murder.
George said he was relieved one of his best investigators didn’t suffer critical
injury.
“He has a broken nose and three teeth knocked out,” George said. “He has
some lacerations, but he’s going to be okay.”
George said law enforcement officers live with the possibility of something
like this happening at any time.
“We know this kind of thing is going to happen,” he said. “We’re just happy
he’s going to recover and that the injuries are not any worse.”
The two prisoners were handcuffed, but their hands were not placed behind their
backs, George said. Investigators’ cars also have no screens between the seats
as regular deputy’s vehicles have.
George declined to say if Davis violated departmental procedures in transporting
the two men in his car.
“We’re not going to go into that tonight,” he said