A Tennessee District Attorney has been charged with shooting at suspects who were attempting to flee police in a getaway car.
Warren County District Attorney Chris Stanford was charged with one count of reckless endangerment after he discharged his weapon during a Smithville police chase last month.
Stanford even posed for a mugshot with prison garb over his suit after handing himself in for booking earlier this week.
The incident is now being probed by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Authorities say that it took place while officers were tailing suspect Caleb Brookins, 28 who was wanted in connection to a triple murder in Warren County.
Stanford, 43, from McMinnville, had been at the scene with deputies and was wearing body armor and carrying a service weapon.
As a getaway car driven by Brookin’s alleged accomplice, Hannah Rose, 21, sped through Smithville, it suddenly came to a halt striking a Homeland Security officer and injuring his leg, said the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office.
Moments later, the DA pulled his firearm and fired three rounds toward Rose and Brookins who were inside. Neither were hit by the gunfire.
But his bullets struck a home on Bell Street, Smithville occupied by a woman and her three children, said TBI’s Monday statement.
An indictment in the case states that Stanford faced no immediate threat when he discharged the weapon.
According to the Tennessee Department of Insurance and Commerce, the DA had not been POST-certified and participated in firearms training – which he claimed he had been.
On Monday, the DeKalb County Grand Jury returned the sealed indictment which charged Stanford with the felony count.
After turning himself in at the DeKalb County Jail on Monday, Stanford was released by authorities after he posted a $10,000 bond, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office told The Tennessean.
Stanford is scheduled to make an appearance in DeKalb County General Sessions Court on January 7.
He will now not be able to prosecute the case in his own county, according to WTVF.
