April 30, 2020
By: Dwayne Page
The two men wounded in a shooting and stabbing Thursday night have now been identified. But the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the case, has not released any further details.
According to Sheriff Patrick Ray the men, 23 year old Braxton Bennett and 20 year old Christian Owen are expected to recover from their wounds. They were airlifted by helicopter ambulance to an undisclosed hospital Thursday night.
The shooting and stabbing occurred during an altercation which began at a residence on Adcock Cemetery Road.
Bennett suffered stab wounds and Owen was the gunshot victim.
“On Thursday at 3:39 p.m. central dispatch received a call from an individual who said he was taking (driving) a 20 year old man with gunshot wounds to the emergency room of the hospital and that they were being chased by the shooter,” according to a statement released by Sheriff Patrick Ray Friday morning.
Upon arrival at the emergency room, city (Smithville Police) and county (DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department) officers learned that the person in the vehicle following the gunshot victim was not the shooter.
“More officers went to the address on Adcock Cemetery Road and during an investigation at the scene received information of a possible suspect and the vehicle he was driving. With that information, a “BE ON THE LOOKOUT” (BOLO) was issued to surrounding counties.
Officers later spotted and stopped the vehicle on Prater Road in the Four Seasons area. Three persons were in the car but neither of them was the suspected shooter. The vehicle was impounded and towed to the jail for evidence processing.
At 5:54 p.m., more than two hours after the initial call to central dispatch, the suspected shooter showed up at the hospital and was spotted there by officers.
Both the gunshot and stabbing victims were airlifted to an undisclosed hospital.
Agencies on all three scenes (hospital, Adcock Cemetery Road, Prater Road) were Sheriff Patrick Ray, officers from the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department, 13th District Attorney Bryant Dunaway and members of the District Attorney General’s Office, agents from the Tennessee Bureau of investigation, officers from Smithville Police Department, and Constable Mark Milam.
The investigation is ongoing.