Joshua EakerA 28-year-old Chattanooga man survived being shot Monday only to end up in jail Tuesday, records show.
Chattanooga police found Joshua Eaker shot and unconscious inside a vehicle parked at a gas station near the Inn Town Suites on Lee Highway around 7 p.m. Monday.
He was in serious condition, according to police, but by Tuesday had recovered enough to go be booked into the Hamilton County Jail on an attempted first-degree murder charge - deputies believe Eaker shot his ex-girlfriend's brother in an apartment on Cummings Highway on Jan. 2.
In that incident, a witness told deputies that Eaker came to the door of the apartment around 6 a.m. and accused his ex-girlfriend of stealing his cellphone. Eaker pushed inside the home and tried to hit his ex-girlfriend twice, the witness said.
At that point, the woman's brother, Dustin Clark, 27, stood up and told Eaker not to threaten his sister, according to court records.
Eaker pulled out a gun.
"I'll shoot all of you if I don't get my phone back," he said, according to court records.
One shot rang out and Clark was wounded, a witness said. Eaker then fled, stealing keys and a vehicle from one person in the apartment.
Two other witnesses to the shooting gave different versions of events to deputies. One woman said Eaker came inside the apartment, asked for his ex-girlfriend and then opened fire when she told him that his ex-girlfriend was not there.
The ex-girlfriend said she was asleep when Eaker burst into the apartment and shot her brother, then hit her on the side of the head after the shooting. Deputies noted that the woman was bleeding from the right side of her head when authorities arrived.
In addition to attempted first-degree murder, Eaker has been charged with theft, violation of probation and aggravated domestic assault. He is being held on a $500,000 bond.
Chattanooga police have not arrested a suspect in Monday's shooting of Eaker, which happened at the Inn Town Suites on Lee Highway. The suspect vehicle is described as a light blue Toyota pickup truck.
The two shootings involving Eaker among the first three of the year in Chattanooga and Hamilton County, records show. A 27-year-old man, Dezmon Walker, was also shot on Jan. 2 in an unrelated incident.
There were 132 shootings in Chattanooga in all of 2016, according to police. It's common for people who are shot in Chattanooga to also be shooters, police say.
Almost half of the people shot in Chattanooga during 2015 had criminal histories that included either a violent crime or a gun charge, according to a Times Free Press analysis.
Police estimate that about 80 percent of the city's shootings are tit-for-tat retaliations.
Contact staff writer Shelly Bradbury at 423-757-6525 or sbradbury@timesfreepress.com with tips or story ideas. Follow @ShellyBradbury.