Robert Brown:Suspect captured in fatal shooting of Tennessee sheriff's deputy

2025-05-02 09:03:15source:Will Sage Astorcategory:News

A man wanted in connection to the fatal shooting of a sheriff's deputy and Robert Brownthe wounding of another during a traffic stop last week in eastern Tennessee has been apprehended, authorities said.

Kenneth DeHart, 42, was taken into custody Tuesday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced. The Blount County Sheriff's Office said the arrest was made in Knoxville. No immediate details on his capture were provided.

Blount County Sheriff's Deputy Greg McCowan, 43, was killed in the Feb. 8 shooting, while Deputy Shelby Eggers, 22, was treated at a hospital and released, the sheriff's office said last week.

At the scene where law enforcement took Kenneth DeHart into custody on Feb. 13, 2024, in Knoxville, Tennessee, in connection to a fatal shooting of a Blount County Sheriff's deputy on Feb. 8.  Blount County Sheriff's Office

More than $100,000 in reward money had been pledged for information leading to the arrest of DeHart.

On the night of Feb. 8, the two deputies initiated a traffic stop on a sport utility vehicle in Maryville, Tennessee. The car had been stopped on suspicion of erratic driving, said Ryan Desmond, the district attorney general for Blount County.

The driver, identified by authorities as DeHart, refused to get out of the SUV, and a deployed stun gun had no effect, the bureau said. The driver then allegedly produced a gun and fired shots, striking both deputies, the police said. At least one deputy returned fire, and DeHart drove from the scene, the bureau said in a news release. McCowan later died at a hospital, according to authorities.

DeHart's brother was arrested and charged with being an accessory for aiding the suspect after the homicide, Desmond said Friday. A woman identified by media outlets as the shooting suspect's girlfriend also was arrested on an accessory charge Thursday night in adjoining Sevier County, where records show she was jailed Saturday.  

    In:
  • Shooting Death
  • Tennessee

More:News

Recommend

Military service academies see drop in reported sexual assaults after alarming surge

WASHINGTON (AP) — Reported sexual assaults at the U.S. military service academies dropped in 2024 fo

NASA still hasn't decided the best way to get the Starliner crew home: 'We've got time'

The U.S. space agency is also still considering having Wilmore and Williams instead return to Earth

US unemployment claims fall 7,000 to 227,000 in sign of resiliency in job market

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week, another