KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — For many families, there's that one person who seems to be the unifying force, the central figure around whom everyone else gathers.
Tucker Blakely was that person in his family. He was "the glue."
His killing in October by a gunman hiding in the closet of a Pellissippi Parkway area home took away that dynamic force from the Blakely family. Today, they're trying to learn how to go on without him.
It's been a rollercoaster, said his older brother, Ty Blakely.
"Him being gone is not the end of this. If anything, we realize that he's the glue and we've got a heavier load that we have to carry, to move forward as a family together. And it's been difficult, and it'll continue to be difficult. But we've got to figure out that new dynamic -- and we'll get there."
The family -- mom Mary, dad Tim, brother Ty and grandmother Carolyn Henson -- sat down recently with WBIR to talk about Tucker, 29.
They want people to know he was a beloved son, brother and father. They want people to know he also was a dedicated public servant who had aspired all his life to be a law enforcement officer.
Every day is hard for the Powell family.
"I don't think there's a day that goes by that we don't cry," Mary Blakely said.
She finds comfort thinking of all the "firsts" she saw with him -- like his first steps, his wedding, the first time he held his baby boy.
Said his father: "It's like I've got a big hole right here that needs a patch, and there's nothing that can patch that hole. And I pray daily for peace and comfort."
'MY MIRACLE'
When you try and try and try without luck to have a baby, it makes that moment when one finally arrives all the more thrilling.
Mary and Tim had tried for five years to have a child. And then Tucker Carmichael Blakely came along in 1994.
To Mary, he was a "miracle," and she looked at him that way every day he was on this planet.
And he was a handful. The handsome boy was lively, charismatic, quick-witted, outgoing, a natural leader. He loved University of Tennessee football and pickup basketball games with his older brother.
If he walked into a room and saw one person wearing a frown, he'd have that person smiling in five minutes, the Blakelys said. In childhood photos, he's always smiling.
Some people considered him a bit arrogant. But it's not really arrogance if you know what you want, he'd say with a twinkle.
He also was compassionate. Early on, he told his family he wanted to be a police officer.
"He grew up wanting to serve," Mary recalled. "He was just, I mean, that's just who he was."
Tucker went to Powell High School, taking part in the band among other activities. That's when he asked his future wife, Katarina, to be his girlfriend. They started dating in 2010, got married in 2016 and had a son, Hendrik, in July 2018, just a few days before Tucker's own birthday.
When he was 17, he pushed his parents to let him join the military. Mary advised him to try college for a couple years first, and then if he was still gung-ho about the military he could sign up on his own.
That's what he did, becoming a combat medic in the Army Reserve. After that, he was ready to join the Knox County Sheriff's Office in 2021.
If Tucker was her cub, then Mary Blakely most certainly remained a mama bear. If she didn't routinely talk with her son, she'd text him to let him know she needed to hear his voice.
A text back wouldn't cut it, she said. If necessary, she told him, she'd call the department's dispatch center to track him down.
Tucker didn't talk about the dangers of being a police officer with his mother.
But he and his dad talked about what was at stake and what could happen.
"Even though he knew the risk, and we knew what the risks were, Tucker always approached life like, if he could help somebody, he was going to help that person regardless. He would put himself in danger to save somebody else, to help somebody else," the father said.
OCT. 1, 2023
On the night of Oct. 1, 2023, a Sunday, a neighbor of Matthew and Angela Rose called KCSO, concerned about Matthew Rose's behavior, records show. He made threats and he had weapons, an investigative report shows.
That summer, Rose had been jailed in Michigan after a domestic episode in which he'd fired a gun outside his parents' home while his family locked themselves inside, WBIR has previously reported.
When deputies from KCSO's Echo Shift, including Tucker, arrived at the Rose home, his wife told them their two young children were still in the house. Also, she said, Matthew Rose was inside, perhaps in the upstairs master bedroom and possibly armed with a gun.
It was supposed to be Tucker's last hitch with Echo shift. He'd just been assigned a K-9 partner and he was excited to be a K-9 handler.
Tucker and Deputy James Loft went inside about 11:30 p.m. while two other deputies stayed and talked to Angela Rose. They climbed the stairs and entered the couple's bedroom, bodycam shows.
Loft stepped toward the master bathroom as Tucker walked toward a closed closet door.
Hiding in the closet, Rose fired off a burst of rounds with an AR-15 style rifle.
Tucker fell to the floor, struck in the head and left upper arm.
Loft wheeled, peeked around from the bathroom and saw Rose standing just feet away with the rifle. Loft fired a shot, ducked back in the bathroom and began firing repeatedly with his service weapon through the wall at Rose, his bodycam shows.
He reloaded, stepped back into the bedroom and saw Rose slumped against a wall.
"Stay with me! Stay with me!" Loft called to Tucker.
When the gunman moved, Loft shouted, "Stop!" and fired five more shots at him. Rose fell back, dying.
In the next few minutes, Loft and multiple KCSO personnel worked frantically to try to stabilize Tucker and tend to his wounds, bodycam video shows.
An ambulance took him to University of Tennessee Medical Center, where it became clear the young deputy wouldn't make it. The decision was made to harvest his organs for donation.
His widow would later recount at the memorial service hearing words she prayed none of them would ever have to hear: "He's been shot."
"May you all hold your loved ones a little closer and love them a little harder," she said.
'MY ONLY JOY'
There are days when Mary Blakely arrives at the Knox County school where she teaches and finds she can't get out of the car.
She texts her principal.
Take your time, the principal replies, we're here if you need us.
"I have good days, I have bad days," Mary Blakely said. "But there's not a moment in the day that I don't think about him, or I don't pick up the phone to call him."
She's never gone this long without talking to him.
Four months on, Ty Blakely said the passing of his brother isn't any easier. If anything, it's harder.
His grandmomma Carolyn Henson said Tucker was "a wonderful grandson."
"He had a heart as big as the world, and I loved him dearly," she said.
For his job with Food City, Tim Blakely has to do some traveling. It amounts to "a lot of windshield time" behind the wheel, he said.
It's during those times that he talks to Tucker. Those moments can be hard, he said, but he knows he'll see Tucker again some day in heaven.
The Blakelys said they're grateful for all the love and support that KCSO and Tucker's "blue" family have shown them through the months. They also appreciate the outpouring of help they've gotten from their neighbors and from across East Tennessee.
"Does it help with a loss? I don't know if anything would. My only joy is I know I will see him again...and that's what I hold on to."
If anyone wants to make a donation now, the family asks that you go to the non-profit Police Unity Tour website, which seeks to raise awareness about law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.
