The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office terminated the employment of a corrections officer earlier this year after an internal investigation confirmed he fired his service weapon into the ground during a domestic disorder last year.
The allegation of excessive use of force against Corey Dent stemmed from an altercation at his Soddy-Daisy home Oct. 31, 2017.
According to an investigation report provided to the Times Free Press by the sheriff's office Thursday, Dent and his girlfriend, Kristina Brownfield, were going to meet Caitlyn Jett, the mother of Dent's children.
They planned to meet at a Walmart so Dent could hand over the children to Jett and her boyfriend, James Moon, after Dent took them trick-or-treating.
Instead, they met at Dent's home where a fight broke out between the two women. The men got involved, and it was reported that Dent pulled a firearm and shot a round into the ground nearby, causing the fight to break up.
Witnesses agreed on the general sequence of events, but shared different details when speaking to investigators. Jett said Dent was late in dropping off the kids, and when she tried to leave with the kids, Brownfield came outside yelling to her and Dent.
"She walks out and she said, "Come on Corey, let the - -," she told investigators. "I said, 'What did you say to me?' And then there were other words said and then she grabbed me by the hair and like jerked me down and then we were fighting."
Jett said Dent tried to intervene by grabbing her, but Jett's boyfriend told Dent to get his hands off of her multiple times. She said she heard Dent announce he was going to fire his weapon during the fight, and a few seconds later she heard the gun go off. Afterward, the men shook hands, and Jett left with the children.
Moon also filled out a written statement and told investigators that Dent fired his weapon during the fight.
Dent told investigators he met Jett at his home but said she "slung her over a car seat into her car" during the war of words with Brownfield. He said he tried to separate the women when they began fighting, but Moon ran up and hit him in the back of the head.
"I thought he was gonna help me. Take a look back and all I see is elbows, him saying 'Get off her,' and it looked to me like he was hitting my girlfriend, so I run over there and grab him to throw him off these girls," he said.
He said he and Moon then started to fight and at some point, Moon put his hand on Dent's concealed firearm that he had strapped around his waist. Dent said he was able to put some distance between himself and Moon and drew the firearm, pointed it at Moon and told them to get off his property. He denied firing the weapon.
Brownfield also filled out a statement the night of the incident and, according to the responding officer, stated that Dent did fire the weapon, corroborating statements offered by Jett and Moon. However, the officer said she asked for her written statement back a few minutes later, scribbled out the part about Dent shooting into the ground and instead wrote that he simply pulled out the gun.
Investigators concluded in their report that there was a "preponderance of evidence" that Dent did fire his weapon during the fight and the allegation of excessive use of force was sustained. He was terminated in January 2018 after the findings were presented to leadership in the sheriff's office.
Contact staff writer Emmett Gienapp at egienapp@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6731. Follow him on Twitter @emmettgienapp.