A man accused of opening fire on the Carter County, TN, sheriff and three deputies, wounding two, in Stoney Creek Wednesday night has been charged with attempted first-degree murder.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation charged Kelly Lee Pitts, 36, Hickory, N.C., on Thursday following his capture in a cave near the Dry Cove Road trailer where the shooting took place, according to a report on the Sheriff’s Department website.
Pitts allegedly fired between 30 and 40 shots at Sheriff Dexter Lunceford and his deputies about 8:45 p.m. Tuesday, wounding rookie deputy Jenna Markland and another woman, who has yet to be identified.
Markland, a deputy fresh out of the police academy, was grazed twice — on the side of her forehead and above her mouth. She was flown to Johnson City Medical Center for treatment. Lunceford reported that she was doing well, as the bullets apparently had not entered her skull, the Johnson City Press reports.