David Ramsey Dunlap
A car and a truck rammed each other during a police chase on Wednesday night, and the driver of the sedan fired shots at the truck before he was arrested, authorities said.
It started after Oak Ridge Police Department officers responded to a disturbance at a home in the Hendrix Creek subdivision at about 10:53 p.m. Wednesday, April 29. Officers learned that a man, later identified as David Dunlap Jr., 44, of Oliver Springs, was at the home, armed with a handgun and threatening to harm others, an Oak Ridge press release said.
When officers responded, they learned that Dunlap was at a home in the Highland View neighborhood. Officers then redeployed to that residence, where they encountered two vehicles, a sedan and a truck, on Outer Drive near New York Avenue traveling at a high rate of speed, the press release said.
“As the vehicles approached the responding officers, Dunlap, who was driving the sedan, fired shots at the truck,” the release said.
Authorities said officers began pursuing both vehicles eastbound on Outer Drive and then southbound on New York Avenue.
“During the course of the pursuit, Dunlap and the driver of the truck rammed each other’s vehicles multiple times,” the release said.
The driver of the truck stopped at the intersection of New York Avenue and Nolan Road. Dunlap continued southbound on New York Avenue.
“As Dunlap was fleeing, he tossed a gun from his vehicle,” the release said.
Officers said Dunlap continued fleeing from police until he stopped on Vermont Avenue. He was taken into custody and charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, and evading arrest. Dunlap’s gun, a .45 caliber revolver, was recovered on New York Avenue, the release said.
Dunlap was taken to the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton and released to jail staff. The driver of the truck was taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries.
“Other charges related to this incident are pending,” the press release said.
Dunlap was arrested earlier in April on a separate aggravated assault charge. In that case, which occurred in Oliver Springs on April 2, Dunlap was accused of striking a pedestrian with a car at a Marathon gas station on East Tri County Boulevard and then leaving the scene.
Witnesses reported seeing a man with a stick get out of a white Dodge truck and approach a silver Pontiac car when the car hit the man, who “flipped up in the air, landed on the car, and rolled off” the car before it left the scene, according to court records.
With the help of witnesses, Oliver Springs Police Department officers were able to locate Dunlap, the car’s owner and driver, at Arrowhead Park, Lieutenant David Laxton said in an arrest warrant.
Dunlap told police he had been leaving his home on Ridgeview Drive and had advised the victim, Timothy Scott Cambron, to slow down. Dunlap alleged that Cambron “brake checked him,” slamming on the brakes in front of him, several times as the two vehicles traveled toward the Marathon gas station, where the two pulled in, according to the court records.
Dunlap told Laxton that Cambron approached him with the stick and, fearing for his safety as well as that of his 10-year-old daughter, who was in the car, he tried to get away. But traffic on the highway prevented that, Dunlap said, so he turned around and was forced to choose between hitting another vehicle or striking Cambron.
“So, he swerved to avoid the vehicle and struck Cambron and fled the scene,” Laxton reported.
But Dunlap couldn’t explain why he hadn’t reported this to police, even though he had driven by the police station on his way to Arrowhead Park, and he said he had been drinking, although he passed field sobriety tests, Laxton said.
Laxton said he obtained video footage from the gas station, and it showed Dunlap intentionally drove his car, which had just been purchased and didn’t have insurance, toward Cambron. There was no traffic in the parking lot, Laxton said.
Cambron was taken to Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge for treatment of his injuries.
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