Trooper is dragged in stop, shoots suspect

Posted on Monday, August 27, 2012 at 5:39 pm

A state trooper who attempted to arrest a Huntsville, Ala., man following a traffic stop late last Monday evening in Marshall County was dragged for a short distance before firing his weapon and shooting the suspect in the arm.

The offender had failed to produce a driver’s license and given a false name, said Kristen Helm, public information officer for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the agency in charge of investigating the shooting.

State Trooper John Judge received minor injuries in the scuffle, but the suspect, Walter Lee Hicks, Jr., 52, was transported to Vanderbilt University Hospital for treatment.

After Hicks reportedly fled the scene, Trooper Judge got back in his vehicle and followed the man and his passenger from Marshall County into Lincoln County through Petersburg on Highway 431 South to an area near Bradford Auto Salvage. Petersburg Patrolman Sam Smiley also got in the chase and fell in behind them, said Petersburg Police Chief James Owen.

A roadblock had been set up on Lewisburg Highway near Deer Trace, but the subject didn’t make it that far.  The woman in the vehicle was not injured.

TBI charged Hicks, of Mastin Lake Road, with attempted criminal homicide and one count of evading arrest. He is being held without bond in the Marshall County Jail in Lewisburg.

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