Information from WYSH Radio in Clinton
The desire to find a deal on a gift for his grandson early on Black Friday landed a Clinton man in jail.
According to the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department, 62-year-old Jerry Leon Poe allegedly fired a pistol at a woman driving in front of him on Oak Ridge Highway shortly before 5 a.m. Friday to, as he put it to deputies, “scare her into moving.”
The woman’s husband, who happens to be a Union County Sheriff’s deputy, was driving behind them in a separate vehicle and witnessed the incident. Deputy Sgt. Michael Butcher activated the authorized blue lights on his SUV and pulled Poe over, getting him out of the car and into handcuffs to await the arrival of Anderson County deputies.
Poe admitted to firing the shot out of his window and told deputies that he did so because “she wouldn’t move out of (his) way.” Poe said that “he didn’t know what had come over (him)” and added that he knew what he had done was wrong.
He said that he was frustrated because he had waited in line for nearly five hours at the Wal-Mart in Clinton to buy a stereo for his son, but they had run out of that item. Poe told authorities that he had been headed to the Oak Ridge Wal-Mart to see if he could purchase the stereo there.
Butcher reported that he had seen Poe’s truck weave back and forth behind his wife’s vehicle, tailgate her for a time, and then pull alongside and fire the pistol in her direction. The report does not indicate if the woman’s car was struck.
Deputies seized two pistols from Poe, who does have a valid carry permit, and took him into custody.
As of this morning, he remained at the Anderson County Jail on charges of aggravated assault, reckless driving, and reckless endangerment.
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