The Tuesday afternoon shooting on East Holston Lane was allegedly a robbery arranged through social media, and it was described by the alleged shooter as a “drug deal gone bad,” authorities said. The three defendants are, from left, Nicole Brewer, 19, of Oak Ridge; Nicholas Strickland, 25, of Oak Ridge; and Matthew A. Mashburn, 27, of Knoxville. (Photos by Anderson County Sheriff’s Department)
The Tuesday afternoon shooting on East Holston Lane was allegedly a robbery arranged through social media, and it was described by the alleged shooter as a “drug deal gone bad,” authorities said.
The shooting, which injured Wesley Arnold of Peach Orchard Road in Clinton, occurred at about 12:58 p.m. Tuesday at 104 East Holston Lane. Arnold had two gunshot wounds, one to each leg. He was hit as he attempted to flee the East Holston Lane home, according to arrest warrants filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court by Oak Ridge Police Department Detective Marvell Moore.
After the shooting, three people were quickly arrested and charged with especially aggravated robbery, a Class A felony; aggravated assault, a Class C felony; and criminal conspiracy, a Class B felony. They are Nicholas Strickland, 25, of South Benedict Avenue in Oak Ridge; Nicole Brewer, 19, of Highland Avenue in Oak Ridge; and Matthew A. Mashburn, 27, of Knox Lane in Knoxville.
Brewer told Moore that she arranged the robbery, and she contacted Arnold, the victim, through a social media site to conduct the deal, Moore wrote in the warrants.
“She (Brewer) advised the drug deal was supposed to be a ‘rip,’ meaning there wasn’t going to be any money exchanged for the substance (methamphetamine),” Moore said.
When Arnold arrived at the East Holston Lane home, Moore wrote, he was instructed to come inside. Arnold and Brewer’s two co-defendants, Strickland and Mashburn, went into a bedroom while Brewer remained in the living room, the warrants said.
“A short time later, a verbal argument between the male subjects erupted into gunfire,” the warrants said. “The victim ran out of the bedroom, into the living room, and down the stairs toward the exit, where he was kicked in the head by co-defendant Mashburn. Co-defendant Brewer instructed the victim to give them the dope, which he did.”
Arnold was shot with a black semi-automatic Sig Sauer .40 caliber handgun, according to the warrants. He was taken to Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge by his girlfriend and later transferred to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.
Arnold knows Brewer and Strickland, according to the warrants.
Moore said Strickland confessed to intentionally shooting Arnold in the leg during a “drug deal gone bad.”
“He stated it was in self-defense,” Moore said.
Oak Ridge Police Department Detective John Criswell found two spent casings at the scene.
Mashburn denied knowing anything about the robbery, although he was apprehended on Wade Lane shortly after the shooting with the defendant and he had Arnold’s knife with him, Moore said.
Brewer, Mashburn, and Strickland remained jailed in the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton on Thursday afternoon.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
See previous story on the shooting here.
The Oak Ridge Police Department investigates a shooting on East Holston Lane at about 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
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