Man charged with homicide in Friday night slaying

A 20-year-old man was arrested Friday night and charged in the home invasion slaying of a Hickory Valley Road man early that morning, a Chattanooga Police Department news release states.

Miles Hankins is charged with criminal homicide and especially aggravated robbery in the shooting death of resident Christopher Robinson, 46, in his home in the 2300 block of Hickory Valley Road, according to the release from department communications coordinator Elisa Myzal.

Police found Robinson at about 1:30 a.m. Friday suffering from a gunshot wound. He died before paramedics arrived, police said.

Neighborhood policing officers located Hankins about 10:10 p.m. Friday. He was questioned, subsequently charged and booked into the Hamilton County Jail on Saturday, police said.

Calls into the department’s Homicide Tip Line contributed to the arrest, according to police.

Chattanooga’s homicide rate thus far in 2018 is about half what it was at this point in the previous two years, records show. Robinson’s death is the ninth slaying in the city this year.

Much of the decrease is attributable to fewer shootings involving gang members, records show. Nonfatal shootings involving gang members are down to 18 in 2018 compared to 26 at this point last year and 43 the year before that — a year that saw a violent gang war.