BLOUNT COUNTY, Tenn. — A walk in one of the Rockford neighborhoods is all it takes to hear birds and a hint of cars driving by. That's how it was on June 11, a day like every other that would soon turn into a battlefield.
Cheryl Varitek was hanging out with her doodle Fenway when she saw a police car storming outside her doorstep.
"It sounded like firecrackers at first, I thought it was somebody just letting off firecrackers but then it paused for a minute, and then it started again," Varitek said. "I saw a police car come in really quickly. He stopped down in front of the house here, and he got out of his car and got a long rifle out of the back of his trunk, and I knew at that point in time that we were in trouble."
Bodycam video showed multiple shots, broken glass and deputies getting shot in their knees while applying tourniquets.
Varitek said she was trying to see what was happening outside, but moments later, deputies banged on her door asking her to find shelter.
She grabbed Fenway, ran down the hall and shut the door behind her. They stayed inside the bathroom for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
"They told me to go directly to a room that had no windows and to get there and stay, stay in there with the dog," she said. "We went to my kids' bathroom down the hallway. It's on the opposite end of the house from the shooting."
Varitek said she had friends and family reaching out to check on her. The most shocking part for her was the alleged gun shooter because she had known him and his family for a long time.
But she was grateful that everyone she knew was well and alive.
"[Ronald Millsaps] was always nice and everything, never any issues in that respect, never dreamed that something like this would happen, that he would do something like that," Varitek said. "As much shooting that happened, I'm really glad it was a godsend that there was nobody killed, and I'm very thankful for that."