Chattanooga Police Briefs: Man in fight dies Saturday

Friday, January 1, 1904

Man in fight dies Saturday

One man is dead and another in jail after a fight early Saturday morning at 5225 Woodland View Circle, Chattanooga police said in a news release.

Police arrived at 3:11 a.m. to find Anthony Scott, 37, dead, spokesman Nathan Hartwig said in the release. Detectives arrested Raphael Colvin, 43, on a charge of criminal homicide. He is in the Hamilton County Jail.

SWAT standoff ends with arrest

A Harrison man who family members said threatened them with guns overnight surrendered Saturday afternoon to Hamilton County SWAT officers.

William Scott Merritt, 49, came out of his home at 6229 Bayshore Drive about 4 p.m. and was arrested without incident, sheriff's office spokeswoman Janice Atkinson said. She said the call came in shortly after 11 a.m. Saturday.

"Deputies spoke with family members before making contact with Mr. Merritt and found that he threatened to kill them last night while holding a weapon," Atkinson said in a news release. "They also relayed to law enforcement, he had a large number of rifles and semiautomatic weapons."

Atkinson said Merritt is charged with two counts of aggravated assault.

SWAT vans, rescue vehicles and an ambulance organized in the faculty parking lot at Harrison Elementary School on Highway 58.

70 arrested in police sweep

A citywide sweep by Chattanooga, Hamilton County and federal officers netted 21 felony arrests and 49 misdemeanor arrests over two days, police said.

Spokesman Nathan Hartwig said police were responding to a rash of robberies in recent weeks.

One of the people arrested Thursday and Friday is suspected of involvement in the robberies, Hartwig said. Eight people were arrested on federal indictments, of which three are validated gang members, he said.

Officers also executed 29 arrest warrants and 3 search warrants, made 116 traffic stops and handed out 113 moving citations, Hartwig said. They conducted seven probation/parole checks, made 10 gang arrests and 34 gang contacts.

Assisting in the sweep were the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office; the FBI; the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the U.S. Marshals Service; Chattanooga Housing Authority police; and the county's 911 service, Hartwig said.