Bob Haynes described Thomas Wallace as “upbeat” Wednesday morning, excited that he had visited his two surviving children the day before.
Haynes, Wallace’s boss at Haynes & Haynes tire store, said that later in the day he received an unexpected phone call from his employee.
Wallace, 22, and his wife, 25-year-old Samantha, were eating lunch at her mother’s house when they learned they were being charged with criminally negligent homicide in connection with their 2-year-old daughter’s July death.
“[He] called me and says, ‘We’re being arrested,” Haynes said. “I was just kind of surprised.”
The Wallaces were taken into custody by police shortly after 2 p.m. Wednesday on indictments from the Hamilton County grand jury, said Rebecca Royval, a spokeswoman for Chattanooga police.
The couple’s daughter, Cameron, was shot in the chest on July 12 when she and two of her siblings, ages 4 and 5, were playing with a .45-caliber revolver in their parents’ bedroom. Haynes owns the rental house at 2008 Tinsley Place off 23rd Street.
Haynes said Thomas Wallace was at work and he’d been told Samantha Wallace was in a separate room of the house washing clothes when the shooting happened.
Cameron was the only child they had together. The other two children have been in state custody since Samantha died, so the couple has said they can see them only once a week, Haynes said.
They were both listed at the Hamilton County Jail on Wednesday on $2,500 bonds.
Hours after the July shooting, Haynes called Thomas Wallace a “fine employee and a fine daddy” and said the shooting was an accident. On Wednesday he said the same thing.
“He’s a good employee. He was a good stepfather. He was a good father,” he said. “I hope they get it straightened out and everything where we can keep him ’cause he’s a good worker.”
Contact Michael Stone at mstone@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6673.