KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — One man is dead and another is hurt after an incident Tuesday in West Knoxville. The Knoxville Police Department said a man showed up at a church after being stabbed.
“We've never had anything like that happen,” Cokesbury United Methodist Church Executive Pastor Anna Lee said. “And obviously it's a tragedy from any angle you look at it.”
Lee said there was an altercation that happened at a homeless camp down the road from the church.
“We try to build community that way so that whatever somebody might need over time, whether it's a spiritual need or physical need in their life, they would think, 'Those are people who are going to be kind, they're going to respect me and be there for me,'” Lee shared.
Lee said that’s why a man who her church had served in the past came in with what KPD says was “non-life-threatening” injuries on Tuesday.
“Our volunteers jumped into action to help him and immediately called EMS, who responded quickly,” Lee explained. “[The injured men] are people that we know that have, you know, we've gotten to know over the years. So just the sadness that anybody would be in a situation like that is heartbreaking. So our first thought was just what can we do? You know, in a really bad situation, how can we help?”
KPD said as part of the investigation, officers went to a homeless camp in the area of Kingston Pike and I-140, where another man was found dead from blunt force trauma. The man who initially showed up at the church is being questioned.
“It kind of makes me a little uneasy but, I mean, it is what it is. Just got to go through it day by day,” Chris Knight, who works nearby, said.
Knight said he saw the commotion Tuesday as officers responded.
“Police vehicles running back and forth to the church, back to the scene and it was pretty wild,” Knight recalled. “This isn't the first time something like this has happened.”
Knight remembers an incident in 2022 that happened in a nearby area.
As WBIR reported back then, KPD found a man's body around the same area of Kingston Pike near Pellissippi Parkway. At the time, KPD said the man had been seen panhandling in the area a few days before he was found.
“Five or six years ago, we started seeing more and more of our neighbors just stopping by the church,” Lee explained. “People who didn't have a place to go or maybe didn't have a home at the time.”
That’s why Lee said the church's outreach ministry, Connection Center, is more important than ever.
KPD said at this time, there are no outstanding suspects and police are still investigating.
