Car owner charged for shooting at his vehicle after woman drove off in it
Two people were arrested after a woman stole a car Sunday evening and the owner of the car fired shots at her at a busy gas station.
The woman, Denise Farmer, 35, has been charged with auto theft after police say she drove away in 23-year-old Donald Domino’s car at the Broad Street Raceway on Sunday evening, according to a news release.
Domino has been charged for shooting at the vehicle in the middle of a crowded gas station after Farmer got inside, the news release states.
Domino told police he left his 2002 Chevy Impala running as he went inside the Raceway, located at 2528 Broad St., around 6 p.m., according to court records. He then saw a woman get inside his car and drive off, so he fired two rounds at the car.
Several people who were at the gas station at the time of the incident said “people were running and jumping under cars.”
Nick Manning said he had just pulled into the gas station when the first shots were fired.
“… My wife looked the shooter right in his eyes. He was two parking spots away from our vehicle,” he wrote in an email. “… Cars were trying to get out of the line of fire.”
Manning, along with several others who witnessed the incident, were concerned with early reports that no one was hurt and mentioned only a female suspect when they had seen a male fire multiple shots.
“I’m freaking traumatized!” one woman, who did not provide a name, wrote in an email. “This is the kind of craziness that you see on tv, but I caught the live version … ”
Police have maintained that no one, including Farmer, needed medical treatment as a result of the shots fired at the Raceway gas station, though blood was found inside Domino’s car and a bullet hole in the windshield, according to court records.
Domino was charged with reckless endangerment and aggravated assault because the parking lot was full of customers at the time of the incident and because he was not in imminent danger and unnecessarily used deadly force to stop Farmer from driving off, court records state.
Farmer, also known as Alecia Driggins, was located by East Ridge police at the Super 8 motel on Ringgold Road, a news release states.
She was taken into custody by Chattanooga police and was being taken to the police department for questioning when officers noticed her trying to hide an unknown substance — later identified as marijuana — under the back seat of the patrol car, according to an arrest report.
Officers pulled over and had Farmer step out of the vehicle when they realized she was trying to destroy cocaine that was coming out of the waistband of her pants, the report states. As Farmer sat on the ground while officers continued searching the vehicle, they confiscated a sharp object they noticed she was using in an attempt to free herself from handcuffs.
Police took her directly to the Hamilton County Jail rather than the police department for questioning because of her behavior, the arrest report states.
Farmer was charged with possession of a controlled substance, tampering with evidence and resisting arrest. She also was charged with auto theft in connection to the Raceway incident.
She has a long history of arrest in Hamilton County dating back to 2007, according to online court records, including several prostitution charges and fraud, theft and criminal impersonation.
Domino did not have an arrest history in Hamilton County before Sunday’s charges.