Between the concussive booms, clouds of stinging gas, flashing lights and the armed and armored SWAT members milling around in their front yards, Friday night was restless for a handful of Ooltewah residents.
On Saturday afternoon police tape still surrounded the yard of a two-story home in the 4000 block of East Freedom Circle. Three windows on the home’s top floor had been smashed apart, the plastic blinds jutting outside at odd angles, while yellow evidence markers sat scattered over the front yard.
A SWAT standoff with one of the home’s occupants, Jovian Kyndiah, 19, began at 1 a.m. and lasted through the night until he surrendered to authorities shortly after 6 a.m., the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. The body of a woman, dead from an apparent gunshot wound, was found inside.
Deputies originally responded to a report of an accidental shooting, but when they arrived Kyndiah had barricaded himself inside.
A SWAT team and negotiators tried to coax him out, but neighbors said the next few hours were tense.