A Chattanooga man was arrested over the weekend after he reportedly threatened to kill a woman over text messages.
The woman called 911 at about 1:40 a.m. on Saturday and told dispatchers that Bennie Melton, 24, pointed a gun to her head and threatened to shoot her, according to Hamilton County court records. Police were sent to a separate location at which she asked to meet.
When they arrived, the woman told police she knew Melton and had picked him up from his workplace in the Brainerd area. While she was driving, though, she got a text message from a contact named "Baby Daddy." Melton saw it and became upset.
"Mr. Melton started arguing with her about this Baby Daddy texting her," court records state. He then grabbed the steering wheel and tried to crash into another vehicle, the woman told police.
The woman finally dropped Melton off at his family member's house and left, court records show. But he then called her back to the house, and she complied.
As soon as she got there, Melton "got into her vehicle and pointed a gun at her head and told her to drive away from [the] house because he didn't want to shot [sic] her in front of [the] house," court records state.
The woman drove around, but he didn't shoot her. Instead, they argued until she dropped him back off at the house, according to records.
The woman showed police text messages in which Melton threatens to harm her. She told police she was worried about her family because he threatened to hurt one of her family members.
Later that night, at around 10:30 p.m., the woman called police again to report a "disorder." Court records don't detail what sparked the call, but when police arrived, they saw Melton walking away from a home near the Alton Park area.
Police repeatedly told Melton to stop, but he refused and then ran away, according to records. Another officer chased Melton in his patrol car and detained him.
A bag that Melton had been carrying was open and spilling over, which alerted police to look for anything he may have dumped. Officers found a loaded pistol in a nearby recycling bin.
Melton was arrested and charged with especially aggravated kidnapping, aggravated domestic assault, criminal trespassing, resisting arrest, evading arrest and unlawful possession of a firearm. He is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 15.
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