The Block, a climbing wall on the face of a downtown building, is one of many attractions featured in a marketing campaign that focuses on the city as a destination. (Chattanooga Convention & Visitor's Bureau Photo)Weston Wamp, a radio host and a former congressional candidate, called the police response to the BB gun shooting in downtown Chattanooga of his 18-year-old cousin "unacceptable" in a Facebook post.
The shooting happened at 2 p.m. on May 10 in the heart of Chattanooga's tourist district, Wamp said.
According to his account of the incident, a gold or silver van with stickers on the rear window with a black female at the wheel pulled up at the corner of 4th Street and Broad Street. A black male passenger fired a CO2-powered gun three times, grazing Thomas Watts, a Soddy-Daisy senior, once in the elbow, Wamp said.
The gun appeared to be a pellet gun, but it was powerful enough to make three holes in the victim's vehicle, according to widely shared posts by Wamp and the boy's mother.
At the time Wamp made the Facebook post, he said the Chattanooga Police Department had yet to file a report, though the CPD disputed his account, saying a report was created about an hour after the incident happened.
"I love and respect the CPD, but one reckless dispatcher took a call from a kid who was shot at and hit in the elbow downtown in broad daylight and did nothing," Wamp wrote. "Told him they would never find the van without a tag number. Given how the last few weeks have gone, this is so unacceptable."
Police spokesman Kyle Miller said that the problem was that the victim waited 45 minutes to call police, and did so only after returning to Soddy-Daisy.
"The reporting parties, mother and victim, have not expressed any concern with officers since their follow-up and officers continue to investigate the case," Miller wrote, adding that Watts' wound had been treated with a Band-Aid and required no medical response.
Wamp later added a post noting that his cousin is meeting with the police department today at 1 p.m.
"Please keep in mind that this seems to be an issue largely created by a dispatcher," Wamp said. "With that said, my sister spent much of her day yesterday on the phone with CPD playing catch-up and asking that they take this serious [sic]."
It is unclear what motivated the shooting. However, Miller said that the victim's cousin, Coty Wamp, told police that the suspect may have fired at Watts because of a rebel flag on a nearby truck.