Special Response Team Swarms House; Michael D. Ward Dies

By BILL JONES

Staff Writer

A spokesman for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says it may be some time before results are made public of an investigation into the Wednesday shooting death of a man who had barricaded himself inside a Kingsport Highway residence.

"When our investigative file is complete, it will be turned over to the District Attorney," TBI spokesman Kristin Helm wrote in an e-mail to The Greeneville Sun.

"At that time, either the District Attorney or I will most likely issue a press release depending on circumstances. It will be awhile before anything else is confirmed."

A Greene County man identified in his obituary as Michael D. "Mike" Ward, 47, of College Hills Drive, died about 9:20 a.m. Wednesday when shots were fired as Greeneville-Greene County Special Response Team officers entered the house at 7575 Kingsport Highway.

Sheriff Steve Burns said he was told that Ward had been living for some time at the residence where he died.

The Special Response Team is composed of specially trained and armed sheriff's deputies and Greeneville police officers.

Lasted 12-Plus Hours

Ward's death ended an armed standoff with authorities that had lasted more than 12 hours.

The incident began about 8 p.m. Tuesday night after Sheriff's Deputies Chuck Humphreys and Ricky Graham responded to a report of a burglary at the small, white-frame house.

The deputies had been pinned down by gunfire from the house until they were rescued by SRT officers about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, Sheriff Burns later said.

Burns briefed reporters abut the standoff during an 11:30 a.m. Wednesday press conference at the intersection of the Kingsport Highway and Walkertown Road.

Burns said Ward died when shots were fired as officers burst into the house, but declined to say whether the man or the officers were believed to have fired the fatal shot or shots.

The sheriff also said officers entered the house only after multiple attempts to communicate with the man by telephone and other means had failed. He also said numerous shots had been fired from the house overnight.

Sheriff Requests TBI Probe

Burns said he had asked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to investigate. He said it is "common in cases like this" for the TBI to be asked to conduct and investigation.

The sheriff noted that TBI agents finished the on-scene portion of their investigation about 2 p.m. Wednesday.

The dead man's body, he said, had been sent on Wednesday to the Quillen College of Medicine in Johnson City for an autopsy.

Kingsport Highway Blocked

Kingsport Highway (Tennessee Highway 93) remained blocked between Rheatown Road and Walkertown Road from about 9 p.m. Tuesday to about 2 p.m. Wednesday as a precaution, the sheriff said.

During that time, traffic was diverted from Kingsport Highway onto Rheatown Road and Walkertown Road.

The sheriff said Ward had begun firing shots from the residence about 8:40 p.m. Tuesday.

The Tuesday night shots were fired, the sheriff said, after Deputies Humphreys and Graham went to the residence in response to a report of a possible burglary.

A friend of the resident had gone to the house on Tuesday evening and had found that its interior had been ransacked, Burns said.

The sheriff told reporters that two women had come to the house and told the sheriff's deputies when they arrived that someone was apparently barricaded inside a bedroom and possibly had committed suicide.

Escorted From House

When the two deputies arrived and entered the residence, which is located only about 100 feet off the Kingsport Highway, Burns said, they heard noise inside a bedroom and escorted the two women from the house.

Later, the sheriff said, the two officers made verbal contact with man inside the house. But after initially speaking with the officers, Ward raised a kitchen window and began firing a shotgun in the direction of the two deputies, who were outside the home at that time.

Deputies Pinned Down

The two deputies took cover behind an outbuilding at the right rear of the residence and remained pinned down there until they were rescued between 2 and 3 a.m. Wednesday by Special Response Team officers, the sheriff said.

"We were able to get the two officers safely away from the residence," Burns said shortly after 5 a.m. Wednesday by telephone from the scene. "We've made several attempts to make contact [with the suspect] without success. Right now, everything is quiet."

The sheriff said that later Wednesday morning SRT officers surrounded the house.

Reporters who were in the area heard what sounded like gunshots about 9:20 a.m. Wednesday, which was about the time Burns said SRT officers entered the house.

At about 9:45 a.m. Wednesday, reporters at a staging area located at Lane's Market on the Kingsport Highway near Walkertown Road saw the SRT officers return from the standoff scene, enter their vehicles and leave.

Armored Personnel Carrier

The SRT officers, who declined to comment, had taken with them the Greeneville Police Department's military surplus armored personnel carrier, a box-like tracked vehicle with thick aluminum armor.

When reporters were allowed to go the scene on Wednesday afternoon, deep tracks in the lawn indicated that the armored vehicle had circled the house during the standoff.

Earlier, Burns had said the SRT officers also were using a robot equipped with a video camera in an effort to determine what the situation was inside the house.

Also responding to the scene on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning to supply food and drinks to the officers involved in the more than 12-hour siege was a disaster services unit from the Greene County Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Red Cross volunteers also offered food and comfort at a staging area at Lane's Market on the Kingsport Highway to family members of the man who had barricaded himself inside the house.