TBI probing shooting of inmate by Sequatchie County corrections officer

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is looking into the shooting of an inmate by a Sequatchie County correctional officer after the man allegedly attempted to flee a medical facility in Bledsoe County on Friday.

Details of the man’s condition were not immediately available, but Sequatchie County Sheriff Bill Phillips said by phone Monday that the inmate was admitted to a hospital for treatment and Phillips had not heard of his injuries being life-threatening.

“A Sequatchie County Sheriff’s Department correctional officer was at a Pikeville hospital in Bledsoe County with an inmate who had been transported there from the Sequatchie County Jail for medical reasons,” TBI spokeswoman Susan Niland said Friday evening in a news release. “Early reports from the scene indicate that after being treated, the inmate attempted to flee from the hospital. The correctional officer discharged a taser with no effect and then discharged a service weapon, striking the inmate. He was taken back into custody and transferred to a Chattanooga hospital for treatment.”

The officer was uninjured, she said.

The hospital where the incident happened, Erlanger Bledsoe Hospital, is west of downtown Pikeville on Wheeler town Avenue off Highway 30. The hospital is adjacent to the Bledsoe County Nursing Home and is the medical facility nearest to Dunlap, where the Sequatchie County Justice Center is located.

“The Sequatchie County Sheriff’s Office will defer the release of any details of the investigation to the TBI,” Phillips said Friday in a statement. “The corrections officer has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.”

Phillips said Monday the state agency was still investigating and he couldn’t discuss details or release the names of the officer or inmate.