Richard Manning
Police are on the scene of a shooting in Chattanooga, which the Chattanooga Police Department has confirmed as a case of road rage.
Site of apparent road rage killing in Chattanooga.Police are saying this much about Tuesday's apparent road rage shooting at the intersection of Moore Road and North Terrace: 39-year-old Norman Gallman was killed, and 62-year-old Richard Manning is charged with criminal homicide and aggravated assault.
And if investigators ultimately determine road rage was the cause of the conflict, it may stand as the first road rage-related death in Chattanooga's history.
"I don't remember us having one here [prior]," said Sgt. Wayne Jefferson, Chattanooga Police Department spokesman.
Around 9 a.m. Tuesday, police were dispatched to 344 S. Moore Road on a "person shot" call. They found Gallman, an Ooltewah resident, in a silver Honda CR-V suffering from a gunshot wound. There was a female passenger in the vehicle, whose name has not been released. She was not injured.
According to a Chattanooga police news release, eyewitnesses described a confrontation between Gallman and another person on the road that resulted in a gunshot.
Jefferson said Gallman and Manning appear to have ended up beside each other at the Moore and North Terrace intersection when the two got into a dispute.
He said it appears Gallman left his vehicle, approached Manning and was struck by a single gunshot. He then walked back to his SUV and was found there by emergency responders.
Gallman was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead from the gunshot wound. Manning, who had left the scene, later was arrested at his 706 S. Lovell Ave. home after police tracked a car matching a description given by witnesses to that location. Jefferson said there was no one else at the house when police arrived.
According to East Ridge emergency dispatch records, East Ridge police have responded to three calls from 706 S. Lovell Ave. since January.
In May, Richard Manning reported his Smith & Wesson .40-caliber handgun had been stolen out of his car. He told police the gun was stolen sometime between May 4 and May 18.
Jefferson said Manning used a handgun during Tuesday's incident, but could not say whether it was the same one previously reported stolen.
In September, Manning called East Ridge police, reported a case of credit card fraud and had police meet him at the bank where his accounts are held.
Then on Oct. 30, Manning had city police dispatched to his house again on a theft call -- that time, he reported, someone stole the battery out of his boat and cut some of the boat's wiring.
Connie Stephens, one of Manning's neighbors, said she isn't too familiar with Manning but has never known him to cause trouble.
"I don't know an awful lot about him," she said. "I just know he's been a good neighbor."
Manning was arrested at his home without incident. He was booked at the Hamilton County Jail, and he faces criminal homicide and aggravated assault charges in Tuesday morning's incident.
In Knoxville on Monday, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel, a man is being held on $1 million bond after police said he opened fire at two motorcyclists on the road. Rodney Lee Scott, reportedly angry with the bikers, is accused of pulling a gun on them and shot 23-year-old Tyler Lakin four times, even after he lay in the road.
In that case, Lakin was taken to the hospital. He remained in stable condition as of Tuesday evening.
Jefferson said the investigation into Tuesday's Chattanooga incident is ongoing.
So far, he said, Manning "isn't saying anything."
Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6731.