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Domestic complaint leads to standoff with police, multiple felony charges
Special to the State Gazette
A 53-year-old Dyersburg man has been arrested and is charged with two felony charges and domestic assault after a short standoff with Dyersburg Police Department (DPD) officers this weekend.
Anthony Joe is charged with aggravated assault and aggravated arson along with the domestic charge. He is scheduled to be arraigned at 4 p.m. today on the charges in Dyersburg Municipal Court. The arson charge stems from a fire started in the bathroom of the residence while Joe was locked alone inside the apartment.
“The way this ended was a win for police,” said Dyersburg Police Chief Thomas Langford. “The officers on the scene did a fantastic job of ending the threat and taking (Joe) into custody with minimal risk to other residents in the apartment complex. They ended the situation quickly and effectively when the opportunity presented itself.”
Officers were called to Perry Vincent Apartments at about 7:20 p.m. on Saturday night in reference to a man threatening others with a knife, according to a DPD report. Officers arrived to find allegations Joe had slapped or hit a woman at the apartment complex and threatened at least one resident with a large knife.
Prior to police arrival, Joe locked himself inside his apartment, the report read. Once officers arrived and determined probable cause to arrest Joe on domestic assault and aggravated assault charges, they attempted to make contact with Joe in an attempt to get him to come out of the apartment.
Officers said they could hear Joe allegedly breaking items inside the apartment and attempting to barricade one of the doors, according to the report. Supervisors on the scene notified the department’s crisis response team to help end the standoff. Emergency medical personnel and the fire department were staged nearby to assist in case of injuries or other emergencies.
“This is why we plan ahead,” Langford said. “When officers entered and found a fire in the bathtub of the apartment, it was a quick response for fire personnel, who kept the fire from spreading to other areas of the building and were able to put it out quickly to limit the danger to other residents and their personal property.”
The standoff ended after about 40 minutes when Joe briefly stepped outside to yell or speak with an officer attempting to speak with him, the report read. A second officer deployed a department-issued Taser to take Joe into custody before he could get back inside.
Officers entered to find items inside the apartment destroyed and located the fire in the bathtub, according to the report. The Dyersburg Fire Department responded and got the fire out in less than 30 minutes.