A standoff between law enforcement authorities and a wanted man lasted about two hours Thursday, July 11, on the 200 block of Sparta Highway in Eatonton.
The man, identified as 26-year-old Tommy Lee Kell, had barricaded himself in the attic of his house and threatened a shoot-out with the officers.
Eatonton Police Chief Howell Cardwell and Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said that a portion of Sparta Highway was closed during the standoff, which ended when they approached the house in a tactical armored vehicle and used a teargas grenade to force Kell out.
He is now in jail, and everyone is safe.
Multiple law enforcement agencies had active warrants on Kell. Cardwell said he learned from probation officers that Kell was at his residence, so he, some of his officers, and the probation officers went to arrest him around 2 p.m.
“We knew he’d been known to run in the past, so we parked up the road and walked through the woods, and (half of us) went to the back door and (the rest) to the front door,” Cardwell said. “His wife or girlfriend said he went up in the attic and was going to kill the police.”
The woman was in the house with two young boys, ages five and eight, Cardwell said, and she told them she was in fear for her life.
She said Kell had climbed up over the hot water heater into the attic to a spot he had fixed up to barricade himself from law enforcement officers when they came looking for him.
Cardwell called in reinforcements from the sheriff’s office.
“I responded with the BearCat,” Sills said. “I’ve had it awhile, but it’s the first time we used it. It was a good feeling to pull up at that house and know that no matter what we faced inside, we were not going to be shot.”
The police blocked traffic on the highway, cleared the adjacent properties on all sides, and cleared the women and boys from the house before entering. Eatonton Fire Department and EMS also were called in, Cardwell said. Then they warned Kell they would use tear gas if he didn’t come out, but the warnings were not taken seriously.
“We probably told him four different times that we were about to gas the house, but he did not comply,” Cardwell said.
Because the smoke grenade contained both OC and CS, which includes pepper spray and disperses smoke but can incinerate, Sills said he didn’t want to throw it in and possibly cause a fire.
“So, I found a six-to-seven feet piece of aluminum pipe and duct-taped the grenade to it and held the pipe up to the attic instead of throwing it; that way, I could control the possible burning components of it,” he said. “Some of the gases came back on me, so I got a worse dose of it than he (Kell) did.”
Kell was transported to Putnam General Hospital, where he refused treatment, Sills said. Because he was holding the pipe with the smoke grenade, Sills received more of the fumes than the others, but all were overcome with it and treated with oxygen at the scene by EMS.
Both Cardwell and Sills complained several hours later that their eyes and skin still burned, but they were “good.”
No gunshots were fired in the incident. Officers did not locate the gun inside the attic, but firefighters who were clearing the scene of a potential fire hazard found two empty gun cases, according to Sills. The woman also told them that she had seen Kell come into the house with a gun a few days earlier.
Cardwell said he wanted to thank and recognize all the officers who assisted in the incident, including EPD Sgt. Howard Clemons, EPD officers Chris Detweiler and Carl Hudson, Georgia Department of Community Supervision Chief James Ward, GDCS officers Lauren Boyer and Cody Minnis, and Putnam County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Col. Russell Blenk, Deputy Sgt. Justin Brock and Detective Lt. Harry Luke.
Kell is being held without bond in Putnam County jail, facing charges of four counts: willful obstruction of law enforcement officers (misdemeanor), battery-family violence (first offense, misdemeanor), possession of arms by convicted felon and first offender probation, possession of ammunition by convicted felon, possession of drug-related object, probation violation obstruction of an officer, probation violation theft by taking, obstruction of an officer, and theft by shoplifting (misdemeanor).
Sills noted that Putnam County already had two outstanding state court probation warrants on Kell, and Newton County had one on him for burglary.
“He has a 30-page rap sheet with 24 prior arrests,” Sills said. “They include arson, fighting in public, theft by taking, criminal trespass, disorderly conduct, statutory rape, burglary, theft by receiving stolen property, possession of methamphetamine, at least ten counts of obstruction of an officer, crossing guard lines in jail with prohibited stuff, possession of Schedule IV drug, theft by shoplifting, and countless probation violations and failure to appears.”
He added that those arrests were made in Baldwin, Dekalb, Jasper, Newton, and Putnam counties and the Covington Police Department.