An off-duty Chattanooga police officer went to Walmart to buy his son a Christmas gift and ended up arresting a shoplifting suspect.
"We were in line but there was a lot of people in the store, (so) I was heading to the car to wait there," Officer Josh Wright said.
As he headed to the parking lot of the Walmart on Gunbarrel Road about 7:30 p.m. Sunday, he saw a man trying to force his way past a greeter with a shopping cart full of two 50 inch-plasma televisions and a computer.
"I found it kind of odd because none of us can afford that," Officer Wright said.
When Walmart loss prevention officers tried to stop the man, he pushed past them and refused to produce his receipt, according to police.
Officer Wright stepped in, identified himself as a Chattanooga Police Department officer and showed his badge. The man looked at the badge, declared it to be a fake and tried to get by Officer Wright, he said.
"He told me he was leaving, shoved me and (that's) when I took him to the ground, wrestled with him a little. He tried to get away so some Walmart employees gave me a hand in restraining him," said the officer, who's been with the force 21/2 years.
He finally took the suspect, identified as Joseph Anthony Hill, to the floor and placed him under arrest.
Within minutes of the arrest, the suspect's wife, identified as Lisa Hill, began acting as if she was having a heart attack and stated that she did not know the suspect, police said.
But a witness told Officer Wright that she had seen Mr. and Mrs. Hill in the store together.
The witness began leaving the scene when Mrs. Hill became belligerent and began calling the witness a liar and threatening her, according to police. Mrs. Hill followed the witness to the parking lot, grabbed her by the hair, threw her to the ground and began hitting her, according to police.
Police said the witness got a pocket knife from her purse and stabbed Mrs. Hill in the arm.
Mrs. Hill was taken to a local hospital, treated for minor injuries and released, police said.
The woman who stabbed Mrs. Hill declined to press charges, and surveillance video from Walmart confirmed the witness's statements, according to police.
Lt. Kim Noorbergen, the police department's spokeswoman, said police still are deciding whether Mrs. Hill will be charged.
Mr. Hill is charged with theft over $1,000 and assault on a police officer.
"It is not uncommon for an off-duty officer to interfere with any kind of incidents," Lt. Noorbergen said.
"By policy we are not required to get involved in a misdemeanor offense, they ask us to be witnesses on misdemeanors, but if it's a physical incident, or someone's life is in jeopardy ... then we are required to step in and act and our officers do that quite a bit," she added.
"We all go through stuff like this at work," Officer Wright said. "You don't always expect it when you are off, but you have to be prepared no matter what you are doing."
Don't you like the liberal way these days where everyone is always just a "suspect" or "is alleged to have", et cetera? No one is ever guilty. Got to thank the ACLU and the liberals for protecting the rights of crooks while having school kids arrested for carrying a bible to school.
It has nothing to do with the ACLU. The phrase "innocent until proven guilty" entered US law through a Supreme Court decision which reversed a lower court because the jury had not been instructed "The law presumes that persons charged with crime are innocent until they are proven by competent evidence to be guilty" in 1894.
The ACLU was established in 1920.
Thank you for playing KWVetran, we have some lovely parting gifts for you, such as a years supply of turtle wax
KWVeteran-
I couldn't find the news article where a student was arrested for carrying a bible to school, could you maybe provide a link?
You guys don't understand literary sarcasm, do you? KW is correct in the broader sense which points out the politically-correct hypocrisy we all live with nowadays.
Criminals do get away many times and victims are sometimes demonized instead. In the case above, the Officer and security guards are not allowed to punch the criminal out. In the good ole days, he could have been taken out with one good pop to the noggin. Unfortunately, extremes exist. Beating someone to a pulp or doing very little to nothing and hoping the criminal will be caught, don't work out too well either.
Christians are forbidden to speak of God or read a Bible in many schools, same with the teachers. Maybe you all have been coddled here, but in many places in this country and in the world, in my (and KW's) lifetime, we have lost alot of freedoms. When yours are taken from you, it will open your eyes.
If you still don't understand, then you just got out of class. We can't help you, but hey, Life sure will <@
Yes, but had the officer Tasered him, all of you guys would have been in an uproar about how Taser's kill. But your all for the officer Punching the guy out ( which under the right circumstances can kill as easy if not easier than a taser)
As for the whole "forbidden of speaking of God" .. Most schools when I was in school and today Offer a Bible Study class. I attended it.
Now I will agree that it is fundementally wrong that you can't Pray before a football game, and the cheerleaders in Ga can't have their Christian banners.
Thats just plain B.S.
Still their message got out did it not?
I don't know who "all you guys" are but I don't particularly care what would have happened to this scumbag. I guess we lucky citizens will get to provide room and board for his sorry --- for a while. Had he died during the scuffle though, we may well have been saddled with a civil reward to his relatives for violation of his rights. Either way, he's going to cost us. Sometimes I think "we citizens" just can't win.
I love how she recovered from "said heart attack" and had the balls to chase after the innocent bystander. What a sad woman. And the police can't figure out whether or not to press charges? Was she not an accessory? Guess not since she acted like she didn't know her husband.
Poor WalMart, not that I particularly care for them, but they manage to get ripped off in the electronics dept at Hamilton Place, Ft O, or Tiftonia WAY too often.
And another thing, where do I find a purse w/easy access to a pocket knife?
Always the "liberals" fault...
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