KNOX COUNTY, Tenn — New details were released documenting the moment when Knox County and Georgia law enforcement officers fired bullets at 38-year-old Edward Ahrens who had kidnapped a Knox County girl.
Ahrens was shot 16 times with the kidnapped girl sitting next to him in the passenger seat of the vehicle early in the morning on Feb. 2.
Ahrens, a Georgia resident and registered sex offender, died. The girl was safe and uninjured. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigations reviewed the shooting and cleared the officers of any wrongdoing. 10News obtained the TBI file.
The file includes a 197-page report, audio interviews, dash camera footage and body camera footage from a responding deputy, all gathered by the TBI.
“Honestly it happened so quick,” said Mikalya Lowe, a Catoosa County Sheriff's Office deputy, in her body cam footage.
Lowe arrived at the scene just moments before the fatal shooting.
Autopsy results show Ahrens was shot 16 times around 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 2, 2024. That same day, the district attorney general asked TBI to investigate. The officers were interviewed four days later about how they coordinated a traffic stop on the exit ramp of Exit 1 on I-75 as Ahrens drove a stolen vehicle from Knox County to Catoosa County, Georgia.
“We did not want him to get mobile,” said David Amburn, the Knox County Sheriff's Office Assistant Chief, in an interview with a TBI special agent. “We wanted to, uh, you know, of course, secure the young lady and that was our intent was to try to keep him from pursuit and or anything else.”
Officers surrounded Ahrens' car. The report said Ahrens was driving with the 11-year-old girl in the passenger seat.
“She was just dead still, staring straight ahead,” said John Sharp, a KCSO sergeant, in an interview. “She wouldn't look over, uh, I mean, she was just frozen and, uh, the door wouldn't open.”
Officers said they gave verbal commands to Ahrens, telling him to open the door and turn off the car.
“He kind of gave that what I call ‘1,000-yard stare,” Amburn said. “He just kind of looked up at us like he was trying to make his mind up. He looked all around, looked at the other officers that were surrounding the car.”
That's when officers said Ahrens accelerated, driving into a law enforcement vehicle before starting to reverse toward Aaron Yarnell, a KCSO captain, and Amburn.
“I remember thinking, ‘He's gonna, he's gonna kill me,” Yarnell said in the interview.
“And at that point, I realized that we were both about to get crushed,” Amburn said in a separate interview about the same moment.
“He had this evil look come about his face and reached down and grabbed the shifter and just started ramming everything,” said Robert Cheatham, a KCSO detective sergeant, in his interview with the TBI.
Then, four law enforcement officers fired their weapons. The KCSO Use of Force Policy states that “deputies may only use deadly force to protect a deputy or others from what is reasonably believed to be an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury.”
The Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office Policy and Procedure Manual justifies the use of deadly force “when the officer reasonably believes that the suspect poses an immediate threat of physical violence to the officer or others.”
“The things that you saw that transpired led you to believe that that officers were in, in physical bodily danger?” asked Luke Muhonen, a TBI Special Agent, in an interview with David West, a KCSO detective.
“Absolutely,” West said. “Yes sir, there was no question in my mind that he was a danger to everybody right there on that scene.”
Officers sustained minor injuries and Ahrens was killed. Sharp said he grabbed the girl from the car.
“She still that same blank stare just staring straight ahead, she's got blood spatter all over her and just, I mean, I'll never forget the look on her face,” Sharp said.
TBI was called to investigate. On June 5, the district attorney general found that the law enforcement officers had each acted in their official capacity and committed no crimes.
The suspect's wife, Ashley Ahrens, is facing charges as well. The 35-year-old is charged with facilitation of especially aggravated kidnapping and being an accessory after the fact.
It's alleged that Ahrens knew that her husband intended to kidnap the child, assisted him in the crime and helped him try to avoid arrest and prosecution after the kidnapping.
She's being held in the Knox County jail in lieu of bond. Her next court date is Aug. 29.