Kimball man says police left him on his own against armed assailant

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KIMBALL, Tenn. - A man claims a bad situation got a lot worse when a Kimball police officer left him to fend for himself after another man allegedly threatened him with a gun.

Robert "Bobby" Gudger complained to Kimball city leaders about the Aug. 18 incident with the town's law enforcement.

Gudger said a man tried to run him over with a car on Ponderosa Circle, then pulled out a weapon and threatened him.

When he called 911, Gudger said, he was told to go to the Kimball Police Department to file a report.

No one was at the police station, he said, but Gudger found Capt. Tim Allison sitting in his patrol car on the other side of the building next door.

"He told me he was off duty," Gudger said. "That they had some officers coming."

The officer left, and he said, not long after, the man with the gun showed up.

"I was here [at the police station] by myself when the guy come back with the gun," Gudger said. "I had to call 911 again and tell them to get somebody down here quick."

Officers, including Police Chief Tommy Jordan, arrived five minutes after the second call to 911, Gudger said, but no one was arrested.

"They didn't do nothing to [the man with the gun]," he said.

Gudger said he pressed criminal charges against the man who allegedly threatened him, and the case has been bound over to a grand jury.

Mayor Rex Pesnell said he looked into Gudger's initial complaint last month and said Allison "had a little different story" about the incident.

Allison said he was on his way to SWAT training in Jasper, Tenn., Pesnell said, but that he did call for help before he left.

"We have it on record," Pesnell said. "We pulled the data and everything where he did call for [another officer] to get here."

Allison told Pesnell that when he left for Jasper, he met another officer heading in the direction of the police station.

"What if that had been your kid?" Gudger asked Pesnell. "And he got told, 'I'm off duty. Sorry.' I don't think the [officer] should've left me here with that situation going on."

Alderman John Matthews agreed.

If the officer was in a police car, Matthews said, he should "be on duty with a call like that."

"That would be disturbing to me," he said.

Vice Mayor Jerry Don Case, who is also the Marion County 911 director, said he would examine recordings of calls and radio traffic during the incident.

"All I can tell you is we will look into it further," Pesnell told Gudger. "I apologize if that is the way it happened."

"That's the way it happened," Gudger said.

Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.

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