SEVIER COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) — A suspect charged in the officer-involved shooting at a New Center home that left one person dead, injured multiple others and a K-9 shot has been identified, and his arrest warrants outline what police say happened Friday in New Center.
When 6 officers went to a home on Holly Drive in New Center, they were attempting to make contact with Daryl Lynn Higdon, 66, of Sevierville, according to the warrants issued in the Sevier County General Sessions Court.
The arrest warrant narrative claims that the Sevier County deputies and Sevierville Police officers who went to arrest Higdon were following up on a vehicle that has earlier fled an attempted traffic stop on Winfield Dunn Parkway.
Police state in the warrant that they were at the home trying to find Higdon after he was identified as the driver and registered owner of a Ford Taurus that fled that traffic stop. Police claim Higdon was driving with a license that had been suspended for failing to pay fines out of Washington County, the warrant states.
Det. Jerry Vandergriff wrote in the warrant narrative that a Sevier County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. B. Tyner knocked on the front door of a home on Holly Drive, “another occupant of the residence” opened the door. The warrant says the sergeant, “could see Higdon in residence armed with an AR-15 style rifle.”
“Sgt. Tyner did draw his service handgun and proceeded to give Higdon commands to drop the weapon,” the warrant narrative states.
Higdon refused to comply and an “exchange of gunfire occurred.”
The warrant does not state who shot first, how many shots were fired, or when and how David Wright was shot. The warrants do not say what caused David Wright‘s death. The TBI said an autopsy would be done to determine what caused his death.
The warrant does state that Sevier County Sheriff’s Office deputies and Sevierville Police officers at the scene had to take cover to avoid the rounds Higdon fired “with the intent of killing” them.
Warrants identify the officers as Sevierville Police Department K-9 Officer Jacob Reece, K-9 Officer Jordan Paul with K-9 Hank, Officer Nestor Verez and and Sgt. Jacob Rademacher; Sevier County Sgt. Bart Tyner and Deputy Mark Hunter,
TBI said that two sheriff’s deputies and a police officer were transported for minor, non-gunshot-related injuries.
Higdon is charged with six counts of attempted first-degree murder, felony evading arrest and driving on a suspended license according to the warrants. He is being held in the Sevier County Jail on $1 million in bonds.
Sevierville Police Department has since released that K-9 Hank is recovering at home. The Belgian Malinois was initially rushed to emergency surgery at Parkway Animal Hospital in Sevierville after the shooting.
