An East Ridge man who was grazed in the head by a bullet was lying in bed just after 10 p.m. Tuesday when he saw on a security camera two people coming up the driveway, according to his son.
The 69-year-old man jumped to the window to warn his son to shoot the intruders, but before he could, one of them shot at the father.
The son, 23, asked that he and his father not be identified out of concern for their safety.
The shooting happened in a quiet East Ridge area on a dead-end road just across the street from a church. The victim has lived in his South Germantown Road home for 40 years.
The bullet came through the father's bedroom window, grazed his head and traveled up into the ceiling. Blood stained the father's mattress and stairs, showing the path he took as he left the home for the hospital.
The father was treated at Parkridge Medical Center and released.
He thought the people were coming to rob their home, the son said.
However, he said, East Ridge police officers did not treat him like a victim.
Instead, he said, police ripped their house apart while searching the couch and chair cushions, inside drawers and under mattresses. The police also broke a window, he said. The son said police put him inside the police car and questioned him for hours before releasing him. Police also took the videotape of the people approaching the house, he said.
East Ridge Police Department Assistant Chief Stan Allen said no one had made a complaint about police treatment to the police.
An East Ridge police representative said Wednesday afternoon that a police incident report was not available. The investigation is ongoing, according to the police department.
Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6431.