KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A 20-year-old man was arrested on Monday after authorities said he choked his mother and slammed her into a wall before breaking his grandmother's oxygen tank while she called 911 for help.
The Knox County Sheriff's Office said deputies responded to the incident around 11:17 a.m. on Monday. When they arrived, they said they met the mother and grandmother of Dontae Hammond, 20. They said he started to get angry earlier in the day and began yelling at his mother.
They said he then pinned his mother to the kitchen table, but she was able to get free. According to a KCSO report, he then threw her onto the couch in the living room and grabbed her by the throat, choking her. He also slammed her head into the wall, according to the report.
They said Hammond then went to his grandmother as she was speaking with 911 dispatchers and took the phone away from her. He then cut the line to her oxygen tank and broke the oxygen machine into pieces, according to the report.
Authorities also said Hammond warned his grandmother that "she would die after he got out of jail."
He was charged with aggravated assault, domestic assault, interfering with emergency calls and vandalism. He has a bond hearing on May 12 and is also a co-defendant in a separate case.
In that case, he was charged with aggravated criminal trespassing after authorities said he ran from deputies when they responded to calls about a burglary in North Knoxville. Authorities said a woman was at home when four people, including Hammond, started banging and kicking her door.
One person in that group pointed something at the woman and she said she believed it was a gun with a laser. According to reports, the woman in the home then saw deputies pulling up to the home and yelled at the defendants that officers had arrived.
According to records, the group started kicking her car before running off, causing several dents. Deputies chased them and caught them, according to records.
Hammond is a co-defendant in that incident, charged with aggravated criminal trespassing. He is scheduled to go to court for it on May 25.
