A house that officers and first responders were often called to now sits boarded up and closed after a judge formerly ordered it to be shut down Thursday.
Judge Bob McGee ordered the home on 118 East Inskip Drive to be closed Thursday morning after neighbors repeatedly reported people overdosing in the front yard and driveway of the house, as well as people stumbling out and overdosing down the street, according to a news release from the District Attorney General Charme Allen's office.
There had been 23 calls for service to the home within the past 18 months that were mostly related to drug overdoses or drug dealing at the location, the news release said, where neighbors said they watched from their homes as people "tweaked" in the front yard and foamed at the mouth.
One call was for an overdose victim who died after first responders were unable to revive them, according to the DA's office release.
Judge McGee closed the house down under the state nuisance law. It was padlocked last night, the release said, and neighbors told members of the Drug Related Death Task Force how thankful and relieved they were that it was closed.
The house appeared to have been boarded up, and officials posted notices such as "No Trespassing" signs on the boards at the house as well, according to the AG's office.
The house is the 56th closure the Knoxville Police Department and the AG's office has carried out via the Drug Related Death Task Force.
The task force is made up of prosecutors and investigators in a multi-agency team that "examines overdoses that occur in this jurisdiction as a means to combat the opiate epidemic," the release said.
The release explained the task force was created this year under the direction of the Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (AHIDTA), with team members from the AG's office, investigators from KPD and the Knox County Sheriff's Office and intelligence analysts from AHIDTA.
"The goal of the task force is to decrease overdoses by holding drug dealers accountable when their drug trafficking leads to overdose deaths and by gaining intelligence about the opiate epidemic that can be used by member agencies and others to fight this ever-increasing problem," the release said.