LOUDON COUNTY, Tenn. — The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said a woman died after Loudon County deputies returned fire when she shot at them as they tried to serve her eviction paperwork.
The Loudon County Sheriff's Office and TBI said deputies tried to serve an eviction order to a woman, identified as 56-year-old Tracy Hope Walter-Hensley, in her home off Waller Street in Lenoir City Wednesday around 9:40 a.m.
When the deputies made contact, District Attorney General Russell Johnson said she fired a weapon at them. The LCSO and TBI said two deputies fired back and retreated to cover.
Loudon County and Lenoir City officers set up a perimeter and asked the Blount County Sheriff's Office's SWAT Team to help. The unit brought in its remote-controlled robot to see if the barricaded woman was alive in the house.
"In this case the robot was used to determine that the female suspect was lying on the floor in the house and was not responding to the robot’s presence of the ‘flash bangs’ that were used to get a response from the prone suspect," Johnson said.
SWAT officers then entered to home to try and render aid and found Walter-Hensley dead with a gunshot wound.
Records indicate a writ of possession was issued in December in Loudon County Chancery Court to take the house after the owner had failed to pay back taxes. The house was to be turned over to John Missinne, a property investor who had become the owner.
A default judgment order had been issued in August 2019, and an order confirming sale of the property was issued in November 2019, records show.
Johnson sought the TBI's intervention this week because the Waller Street incident involved law enforcement officers firing their weapons. No officer was wounded.
It is still unclear if the woman shot herself or died from a wound sustained in the exchange.
TBI agents are leading the investigation and assessing the scene, saying no officers were hurt in the incident. Forensic scientists from Knoxville are collecting evidence.
This story will be updated as more details become available.