Alexander Ryan Tirado
Joshua Chase Payne
Two Knoxville men were arrested and charged with reckless endangerment after drive-by shootings were reported on Pennsylvania Avenue and West Outer Drive on Tuesday, authorities said.
Arrested were Alexander Tirado, 25, of Oak Park Drive in Knoxville, and Joshua Chase Payne, 23, of Wallace Road in Knoxville.
In arrest warrants, Oak Ridge Police Department officers reported two calls of shots fired on West Outer Drive and Pennsylvania Avenue near Pine Lane on Tuesday night.
There were at least three adults and two juveniles in the 300 block of West Outer Drive, in the “immediate vicinity and the general direction of the gunfire” there, the arrest warrants said. Five spent 9mm casings were recovered from the street, authorities said.
Witnesses said a gold sedan with an inoperable headlight driving west on West Outer Drive fired five to eight rounds from a semi-automatic handgun from the passenger window, the warrants said.
Oak Ridge police found a gold Saturn sedan with a headlight out, with a male driver and a female passenger, driving east on the same road, the warrants said.
“Witnesses still on the scene indicted the Saturn appeared to be the same vehicle from which the gunshots originated,” the warrants said.
ORPD Officer Matthew Johnston stopped the car at about 9:16 p.m. for a light law violation. Tirado was driving it, according to the warrants.
A probation officer authorized a search of the car. It turned up a loaded Glock 19 9mm handgun and a box of Winchester 9mm ammunition, the warrants said.
“A receipt located with the ammunition indicated that it was purchased 15 minutes before the shooting,” the warrants said.
“The defendant (Tirado), under Miranda, stated he fired the handgun out the window while the co-defendant drove on West Outer Drive,” authorities said.
Police also responded to a shots fired call in the area of Pennsylvania Avenue at Pine Lane on Tuesday.
ORPD Officer Karen Jenkins said she heard what sounded like four gun shots north of her location near Oak Ridge High School and North Tulane Avenue. She responded to Pennsylvania Avenue at Pine Lane and found four people standing on the sidewalk and in the street where on-street parking is between Poplar Road and Pine Lane.
Three witnesses standing in the parking lot of the Seventh Day Adventist Church reported a goldish/silver four-door vehicle drove north on Pennsylvania Avenue, and they said the people inside the car fired four rounds from a gun into the area and in the area of where the witnesses were standing, Jenkins reported in arrest warrants.
She learned later from Tirado and interviews with Johnston that Tirado was “one of the occupants of the vehicle on Pennsylvania Avenue and admitted to shooting a gun that was found in the vehicle in which the defendant was riding,” Jenkins said in the warrants.
Co-defendant Joshua Chase Payne also was “one of the occupants of the vehicle on Pennsylvania Avenue and admitted to shooting a gun that was found in the vehicle in which the defendant was riding,” Jenkins said. He admitted firing in the location where the witnesses were standing, the warrants said.
After being read his Miranda rights, Payne said he accompanied Tirado to Walmart, where the two purchased ammunition, the warrants said. Then, they drove to the home of an acquaintance via West Outer Drive.
Payne apparently initially denied any knowledge of a firearm, according to the warrants.
But, “the co-defendant confessed, under Miranda, to firing the gun from the vehicle while the defendant drove,” the warrants said.
There were no reports of injuries. The warrants don’t give a motive for the shootings.
Tirado was charged with reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, reckless endangerment, and unlawful possession of a weapon.
Payne has been charged with reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon and reckless endangerment.
Both remained jailed in the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton on Wednesday afternoon.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
Copyright 2016 Oak Ridge Today. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Terry Pfeiffer says
And THAT my friends is why we need stricter gun laws. These idiots should never have been allowed to purchase a gun or ammo. Your so called 2nd amendment rights do not trump my right to live without being shot.
Rick Hasbrouck says
Terry I didn’t see you name in this story. When were you shot? My 2nd amendment rights did not get you shot! My 2nd amendment rights keep your 1st amendment rights in place to make ignorant comments!
Joseph Lee says
Agreed. Your 1st amendment rights grant you the right to make ignorant comments like the ones you made above. Thank you ORPD and thank God no one was killed.
Terry Pfeiffer says
hmmm. Did I say I’d been shot or are you just “being clever?” Note that I did not call you ignorant because of YOUR opinion. For the record I’m not against the 2nd amendment; I just get so upset about people hiding behind it that because they want their guns whenever they want, and want to get them however they want.
These people in the story should never have been granted access to guns…how could you argue that?
Tracy Powers says
“These people in the story should never have been granted access to guns.”
We don’t know how they came to be in possession of guns. Their parents may have had them locked up and these men knew where the keys were? Stolen? I don’t know.
I’m glad these two are stupid, tho, makes charging them that much easier.
Terry Pfeiffer says
Why do you say the gun was more than likely stolen? From the story, “A receipt located with the ammunition indicated that it was purchased 15 minutes before the shooting,†the warrants said.
Why wouldn’t you want background checks or a cooling period?
jim materbah says
So if the goverment decides to take all the guns from law abiding citizens, the thugs and criminals will surrender theirs also??????? Are you stupid???????
Terry Pfeiffer says
I’m not the one who’s stupid here, No one said the government was taking our guns. All I want is people to be checked out BEFORE they get their hands on a gun.
Sam Hopwood says
Drive-by shootings and mass killings are as American as mom and apple pie. If the slaughter of 26 kindergarten children and their teachers in Conn. didn’t get our attention, and it didn’t, nothing will. Sadly, we are a gun crazed nation.
jim materbah says
I love my guns. When somebody who breaks into my house with the intentions of ill will, I can shoot them dead, if an idiot decides to hold me up in a krogers parking lot, same thing. You folks walking around with your head in the ground are the ones I keep reading about being killed. A gun changes the whole setup. But whay do I know? There is a whole world out there who does not believe in Jesus Christ. Called Atheist I think.
Sam Hopwood says
Perhaps this will be your lucky day and you will get to make your first kill. Good luck and good hunting!
Rick Hasbrouck says
“A receipt located with the ammunition indicated that it was purchased 15 minutes before the shooting,†would indicate the receipt was for the ammunition, not a firearm.