BLOUNT COUNTY, Tenn. — Ronald Reed Millsaps is now in jail awaiting prosecution after authorities said he opened fire and shot two deputies on Tuesday as they responded to a call about a domestic situation.
The 59-year-old faces multiple charges including attempted criminal homicide, aggravated assault and kidnapping.
Some of those bullets landed right across Millsaps' house and Charles Stacie, the neighbor who lives there, said the deputies were shot right in front of his driveway.
"I could hear them, I couldn't see them," Stacie said. " I got up to go see who it was, and the county cruiser had backed in my driveway. There was two officers in the back of the car, you know, hiding in the back. And then the gunshots started."
Stacie was in his living room when two deputies suddenly knocked on his door. When the gunfire started, some bullets flew into this house and three of those bullets landed in the garage door, two penetrated the front window, one hit the refrigerator and the other hit a shelf.
Storie said from another side of the house, he briefly saw Millsaps shooting from the garage.
"I hid behind that curio cabinet there between the door and the windows, and I could see that two windows had been shot out," Stacie said. "I mean, just, 'Pow, pow.' Sounded like a war zone."
Another neighbor said she had to hide inside her bathroom with her dog.
"I was told through the grapevine that he was in an argument with his mother and threatened to kill her, and he walked out of the room," Stacie said. "So she called the law."
Storie lives with his wife and they've been married for 23 years.
He described her as the love of his life and he said she wasn't home at the time of the shooting because she had a doctor's appointment.
"My wife fell several weeks ago and broke her wrist, and I'm sickly," Storie said. "I can't get her up, and so I went over there and asked him to come help me pick her up. He's a nice fellow."
Millsaps is being held in jail in lieu of more than $2 million bond. His court hearing is scheduled for Monday.
Storie said his hope now is for deputies Smith and Walker to recover.
"If I'd have been over there in the kitchen area, around the dining room when it was going on, looking out, I could have got shot — but one of them bullets had come through," Stacie said. "I'm lucky. I'm glad I got up this morning."