Michael J. DavisChattanooga police used surveillance footage to track down the suspect in a series of vandalism incidents in downtown Chattanooga on Tuesday.
Michael J. Davis, 18, was arrested Wednesday after several windows in two downtown buildings were damaged by either a pellet or BB gun, police say.
Police were called to the Miller Brothers building, located at 629 Market Street, at around 10 a.m. Tuesday morning, according to a police report. Four windows - two large and two small - were damaged. Three other windows and a glass door were also damaged at the Liberty Tower office building, located at 611 Chestnut Street.
Interior security footage for the Chicken Salad Chick restaurant showed the window shattering at around 2:15 a.m., said Josh Patton, the restaurant's owner.
Police found a security camera that showed a blue 1990's model Chevrolet S-10 entering a nearby parking area at around 2:17 a.m., according to Hamilton County court records. Two people were seen lying flat in the bed of the truck.
And what really helped narrow things down for police was the truck's license plate. Investigators tracked it back to Davis' father, and that's how they found Davis.
Davis "immediately admitted to driving the truck but denied shooting anything with a BB gun," court records state.
He told police "the one shooting the gun was a black male known only as [redacted]" and that the BB gun belonged to that man, whom he described as being about 20 years old.
Davis eventually admitted to driving past several buildings as the unknown man shot at windows, court records show.
Davis was charged with three counts of vandalism and booked into the Hamilton County Jail on a $4,000 bond.