Deputy in third pursuit, shooting in three months
The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office deputy at the center of a weekend pursuit that led to him shooting a man has been involved in two other shootings, one of which was fatal, in the past three months.
The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office identified the deputy as Jordan Long.
Long has been under investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation since May 18, when he shot and killed 29-year-old Tyler Hays following a pursuit in Sale Creek.
Long was placed on administrative leave and was back on duty five days later. Two-and-a-half weeks after that, Long on June 9 shot at another man who was involved
in a pursuit. That man was not injured.
Long was again placed on administrative leave and was back on duty 13 days later. Now, Long has again been placed on administrative leave and is under internal investigation for all three incidents.
The TBI is investigating the most recent shooting.
The sheriff’s office did not clarify why or how Long was placed back on duty twice while under criminal and internal investigations.
According to preliminary information, the TBI said in a Sunday news release, a Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office deputy tried to conduct a traffic stop on Coral Road in Hixson.
It’s not clear if Long was the pursuing deputy, as neither the TBI nor sheriff ’s office have clarified. And according to the TBI, there were multiple deputies at the scene.
The driver, identified as 50-year-old Ronald Andrew Hutson, did not stop, and a pursuit ensued. He eventually lost control of the vehicle, and it spun out of control on Hixson Springs Road.
Then, as the pursuing deputy exited his vehicle, Hutson drove toward multiple deputies, and one of them — Long — opened fire.
Hutson was injured and taken to a local hospital for treatment. His condition was not released, and the sheriff’s office said no deputies were injured.
Meanwhile, the TBI’s investigation into the first shooting, the one that left Tyler Hays dead, has been handed back to District Attorney Neal Pinkston’s office for review.
Pinkston can decide to present the case to a grand jury for potential criminal indictment, or he could close the case without charges.
Pinkston’s office has said it is still reviewing the case.
Hays’ mother, Deborah Lilly, has been left searching for answers since her son’s death.
The Hamilton County Medical Examiner’s report gave her some of those answers. It stated that Hays had been shot in the back.
Lilly said she felt like she’d been stabbed in the heart when she read the report.
“How does someone justify that?” she previously told the Times Free Press. “You cannot justify shooting someone in the back. There’s, there’s no justification for it.”
There was “no powder stippling or soot, no muzzle mark on the surrounding skin and no charring,” according to the autopsy report. It was an “intermediate range” gunshot to his mid-back. The bullet was lodged in his right shoulder.
Before joining the sheriff’s office, Long was a Collegedale police officer. While there, he faced a lawsuit that accused him of yanking a man into oncoming traffic. Long’s supervisor pulled the men back onto the side of the road.
That lawsuit has now been settled for $7,500 “at the recommendation of our insurance counsel,” Collegedale city attorney Sam Elliott said in an email. “[T]he settlement is not to be deemed an admission of any wrongdoing.”