An armed robbery was reported in the parking lot of Burger King on Oak Ridge Turnpike on Thursday, authorities said.
The alleged robbery was reported at about 4:43 p.m. Thursday, the Oak Ridge Police Department said. It allegedly involved two suspects who fled in a vehicle, the ORPD said.
Officers searched the area for the vehicle and suspects, a press release said. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Fire Department puts out a house fire at 106 Wayside Road on Wednesday, June 15, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was last updated at 10 a.m. June 16.
An Oak Ridge man and woman and their dog escaped from a fire that heavily damaged a home on Wayside Road on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.
The fire was reported at about 5:32 p.m. Wednesday.
The couple and their dog were reported to be out of the house and in a neighbor’s yard when firefighters arrived. No injuries were reported.
The fire appeared to have started at a propane grill on a back porch, although the cause hasn’t been determined, said Eric Rackard, Oak Ridge Fire Department battalion chief. [Read more…]
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. [Read more…]
One man died after a two-vehicle crash on Oak Ridge Turnpike on Thursday evening, June 2, 2016. Authorities said a 2015 Toyota Prius was turning out of the Weigel’s parking lot onto the Oak Ridge Turnpike in west Oak Ridge and pulled into the path of this 2013 Dodge Ram pickup truck, which was hauling a livestock trailer. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was last updated at 6 p.m.
An Oak Ridge man died after a two-vehicle crash on Oak Ridge Turnpike on Thursday, authorities said.
The crash was reported at about 6:30 p.m. Thursday in front of Weigel’s at 2385 Oak Ridge Turnpike, on the west end of town.
A 2015 Toyota Prius was turning out of the Weigel’s parking lot onto the Oak Ridge Turnpike and pulled into the path of a 2013 Dodge Ram pickup truck hauling a livestock trailer, the Oak Ridge Police Police Department said.
The driver of the Toyota Prius, Lawrence Landau of Oak Ridge, was taken by ambulance to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, where he later died, the ORPD said. [Read more…]
Donald Johnson
An Oak Ridge man and Knoxville woman have been charged with aggravated robbery after a handgun and box cutter were allegedly used to rob an Oak Ridge man of $400 on Wade Lane on May 23, authorities said.
The two defendants are Donald Johnson, 37, of Wade Lane, and Tosha Woods, 36, of Henderson Road in Knoxville.
The victim, an ex-boyfriend of Woods, went to retrieve items from Woods’ vehicle on May 23, and he found Woods, her 16-year-old son, and Johnson, her new boyfriend, at 122 Wade Lane, according to arrests warrants filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court by Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Rodolfo Estrada.
“When the victim asked for his belongings, an argument ensued between the son and the victim,” Estrada said, citing evidence and statements from the victim and the suspects, after they had been read their Miranda rights. [Read more…]
Cassen Jackson-Garrison (Source: TBI)
Note: This story was updated at 6:10 p.m.
CLINTON—A former Oak Ridge Police Department officer charged with aggravated statutory rape and official misconduct pleaded not guilty in Anderson County Criminal Court on Friday morning.
Cassen Jackson-Garrison, 31, was indicted on the two charges by the Anderson County Grand Jury on May 3. He was arrested May 6 by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Anderson County Sheriff’s Department in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.
At the request of Seventh District Attorney General Dave Clark, TBI special agents began investigating Cassen Jackson-Garrison, who was an ORPD officer at the time, on August 13, 2015, on a complaint that he was having sexual contact with a minor. During the course of the investigation, Agents developed information that Jackson-Garrison had sexual contact with the teen in July 2015, the TBI said in a May 6 press release. [Read more…]
Dave Clark
Note: This story was updated at 4:10 p.m.
CLINTON—Most of the defendants indicted in two cocaine conspiracies that were announced this month pleaded not guilty during arraignments in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on Friday, officials said.
Trial dates have already been set, Seventh District Attorney General Dave Clark said. The trial date for the defendants charged in a Knoxville conspiracy is July 2017. The trial date for those charged in an Oak Ridge conspiracy is September 2017.
Officials said there were 34 conspiracy-related arraignments scheduled for 32 defendants in Anderson County Criminal Court on Friday morning.
Almost all of the defendants scheduled to appear on conspiracy-related charges on Friday were indicted by the Anderson County Grand Jury on May 3 in two alleged plots to manufacture, distribute, and sell 300 grams or more of cocaine last year. They were also indicted on charges of allegedly conspiring to manufacture, distribute, and sell more than 0.5 gram of cocaine in a school zone. Each of those defendants is facing eight charges. One conspiracy allegedly involved 24 people, and the second allegedly involved 11. Two of the defendants were named in both conspiracies.
Some of the defendants are also facing more drug-related charges. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Police Department was investigating a crash on Wabash Lane on Wednesday afternoon after a sport utility vehicle drove through bushes in one yard and knocked down a sidewalk railing before knocking down a fence and crashing into a tree in another. Pictured above is ORPD Detective John Criswell. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was last updated at 9 p.m.
The Oak Ridge Police Department was investigating a crash on Wabash Lane on Wednesday afternoon after a sport utility vehicle reportedly drove through bushes in one yard and knocked down a sidewalk railing before crossing the street into anther yard, where it knocked down a fence and crashed into a tree.
The crash was reported at 2:38 p.m. Wednesday at 126 Wabash Lane.
Witnesses said the Ford Escape had come off Waddell Circle, a one-way street, crashed through bushes in the front yard of a house at the corner of Waddell Circle and Waddell Place, curved through the yard, where it knocked down a sidewalk railing, and then crossed Wabash Lane into the yard of the second home, where it reportedly knocked over part of a fence and a recycling bin and hit an air-conditioning unit, according to residents. The SUV hit a tree about 100 feet from the street in the back yard of that home, and it also appeared to have clipped the side of the two-story home. [Read more…]
An armed home-invasion robbery was reported on Jonathan Lane in Oak Ridge on Saturday afternoon, authorities said.
The robbery was reported at 122 Jonathan Lane at about 3:15 p.m. Saturday, the Oak Ridge Police Department said.
The occupants of the home were assaulted and robbed of cash and prescription drugs, the ORPD said in a press release. One of the victims was transported to the University of Tennessee Medical Center by Anderson County EMS for treatment of injuries sustained during the assault. The other victim went to UTMC by private vehicle. [Read more…]
Batman, a Dumbo rat, left, and Pumpkin, a FIV-positive cat, two mascots at the Oak Ridge Animal Shelter, will be featured on National Geographic (Nat Geo) WILD’s “Unlikely Animal Friends” airing 8 p.m. Saturday, May 21. (Photo by City of Oak Ridge)
Two mascots at the Oak Ridge Animal Shelter, Pumpkin and Batman, will be featured on National Geographic (Nat Geo) WILD’s “Unlikely Animal Friends,” which airs Saturday, May 21, at 8 p.m.
The Oak Ridge Animal Shelter will premiere the show at Pizza Inn, which is located at 1501 Oak Ridge Turnpike. Doors will open at 7 p.m. Saturday for the show at 8 p.m.
“Please join the City of Oak Ridge for this event highlighting the community on national television,” a press release said.
For more information about the Oak Ridge Animal Shelter, please visit http://animalshelter.oakridgetn.gov/ or call (865) 425-3423.
The driver charged with vehicular homicide in a fatal three-vehicle crash in Oak Ridge on Friday, May 6, 2016, is suspected of using a narcotic pain-reliever, authorities said. The crash at the intersection of Oak Ridge Turnpike and Jefferson Avenue killed Christy Duncan, a 37-year-old Harriman mother who was an employee of Roane County Schools and attended church in Oak Ridge. A Mother’s Day memorial was set up near the crash site on Sunday, May 8, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
The driver charged with vehicular homicide in a fatal three-vehicle crash in Oak Ridge on May 6 is suspected of using a narcotic pain-reliever, authorities said.
Vicki G. Gilmore, 61, of Oak Ridge, had constricted pupils and droopy eyelids after the Friday night crash, Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Derek A. Burchfield wrote in affidavits filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge.
The crash was reported at about 9:47 p.m. Friday, May 6, at the intersection of Oak Ridge Turnpike and Jefferson Avenue.
All witness statements said Gilmore was driving fast in the westbound lanes of Oak Ridge Turnpike, Burchfield said. A blue Nissan Altima was on the inside lane at the red light. Inside that car were Christy Duncan, 37, of Harriman, and her four-year-old daughter Janna.
In the outside lane was a silver Lexus occupied by Jason Watson, according to the affidavits, which are attached to arrest warrants.
“All statements say Gilmore failed to slow down or even hit the brakes, crashing into the rear of Duncan’s vehicle before sliding sideways into Watson’s vehicle,” the affidavits said. [Read more…]
A few options have been considered, and Anderson County will now study whether to move the General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge to a county-owned building on Emory Valley Road. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
A few options have been considered, and Anderson County will now study whether to move the General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge to a county-owned building on Emory Valley Road.
Related to that proposal are plans to move the Oak Ridge Senior Center, which is now at the Emory Valley Road building, to the Oak Ridge Civic Center on Oak Ridge Turnpike.
Also up for a possible move is the Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks Department. That department now occupies part of the Civic Center, where the Senior Center could move, but the department’s administrative offices could move to a vacant building on Badger Road that once housed Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic.
The idea is that moving the administrative wing of Recreation and Parks to the Badger Road building could free up space for seniors at the Civic Center, which in turn would help create space at the county-owned building for the General Sessions Court. [Read more…]
