A report of an armed robbery in the Stoney Creek community on Wednesday led to a high-risk traffic stop and a male subject being detained for questioning.
Officers of the Carter County Sheriff’s Department responded to a home in the Stoney Creek area after a woman called 911 and said she had been robbed at gunpoint inside her home by two men. The woman identified one of the two men by name but said she did not know the other man.
In his report on the incident, CCSD Sgt. Brian Durham said as he was driving to the scene, 911 dispatchers advised officers the two men had left the home in a grey Saturn four-door car.
“As I was arriving on scene, Comm. Center advised that Elizabethton Police Department had located and stopped the vehicle containing only (one male subject,)” Durham said.
Durham spoke to the woman who called 911, as well as to her male roommate, before he responded to the traffic stop by the city officers. The woman told Durham a man she knew came to her home along with a man she did not know.
“(The woman) stated that she and (the man she knew) went to her bedroom and were having a conversation when (he) starting ‘tasing’ her and threatening to kill her,” Durham said. The woman also said he “choked her out numerous times to the point she blacked out” and he attempted to tie her feet up with string.
The woman said the two men then took her purse, which she said contained medication and about $1,500 in cash, and fled the home. Her male roommate told police he had been asleep when the two men arrived but was awakened by the sound of the woman struggling with one of the men. He said when he attempted to intervene, the unknown man “brandished a small-sized handgun” and told him not to get involved. The woman reported that the man known to her and her roommate was also armed with a handgun.
After the initial call came in, EPD Cpl. Jordan Ensor said 911 dispatchers advised city officers to be on the lookout for the suspect vehicle, which was possibly traveling on Highway 91 toward Elizabethton.
While patrolling on Highway 91, Ensor said he saw a vehicle matching that description which was being driven by the man identified as the suspect.
“Once additional city officers arrived in the area, I then conducted a high-risk traffic stop on the Saturn as it turned from Lovers Lane onto North Lynn Avenue,” Ensor said, adding he drew his duty weapon and ordered the man out of the vehicle and detained him for officer safety due to reports he was in possession of a firearm.
Ensor informed the man of the reason he was stopped and the man denied having any weapons in the vehicle. He gave officers permission to search the car, and no weapons were found in the car, Ensor said.
The man was alone in the vehicle at the time of the traffic stop, Ensor said, and he denied having anyone else with him.
Once officers of the Sheriff’s Department arrived on scene, Ensor said the suspect was turned over to them so the investigation could continue.
The man was then transported to the Sheriff’s Office for further questioning by investigators, Durham said. He was detained for questioning but no charges were filed in connection with the incident at this time. Additional information has not be released by the Sheriff’s Department and the investigation is ongoing.