KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — A man wanted by police ran from Knox County Sheriff’s deputies, crashed a car and choked a police K9 before being arrested in West Knoxville Friday night.
Anthony Dennis, 35, is facing charges of reckless endangerment, evading arrest, driving while suspended, resisting arrest, along with several drug possession charges.
According to a KCSO report, officers spotted Dennis in the driver seat of a 2005 Ford Freestyle at the Mainstay Suites on Langley Place.
Officers said Dennis matched a description of a person with warrant that was associated with the car. Officers approached the car as the suspect was getting out of the car and told him he was under arrest for the warrant, the report said.
KCSO officers said the suspect fled in the car onto Parkside Drive at a high rate of speed. The report say at one point the suspect turned into oncoming traffic and drove for about a mile causing other drivers to swerve out of the way.
The report said the driver cut through a neighborhood that exited onto Kingston Pike. The report said he ran a stop light and entered the exit ramp to Pellissippi Parkway the wrong way, nearly causing a head-on crash with an ambulance running to an emergency call. Officers had to stop pursuing the suspect due to safety concerns.
Officers later found the car driving erratically and at a high rate of speed exit I-40 westbound onto Lovell Road. Officers tried to do a traffic stop after the driver ran another red light. The report says the suspect nearly hit other cars on Pellissippi Parkway and on Hardin Valley Road.
According to the report, the car crashed on Ball Camp Byington Road where Dennis attempted to flee on foot. KCSO used a K9 to help track down the suspect. The report says with the K9 made contact with Dennis and grabbed the dog’s throat. Dennis was quickly placed in custody.
KCSO’s report says Dennis was wanted out of Virginia for a felony probation violation for dangerous drugs and his license was suspended out of Virginia.
The report says suspected heroin and marijuana were found in the car along with numerous needles.
Dennis was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center from evaluation where he is in police custody.