The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation investigated and cleared all three Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputies now embroiled in a civil trial in which they are accused of using “excessive force” against a man they shot and killed in 2007, according to court testimony Tuesday.
It is the first such police shooting trial to be held since the end of 2009, a year that saw five incidents of police-involved shootings across the region.
Arguments will continue this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga, where the family of victim Thomas Earl Jones is hoping to prove that Mr. Jones died in vain the night the deputies stopped him after a relative had reported that he had stolen a vehicle.
The defendants claim Mr. Jones was drunk and belligerent. A repeat offender, Mr. Jones was known to be combative and difficult with police and had been in jail several times before.
Defendants said Mr. Jones told deputies that they would have to shoot him before he would ever go back to jail.