VICTIMS’ IDENTITIES RELEASED, SUSPECT CHARGED WITH MURDER, ATTEMPTED MURDER

One suspect is in custody after a dual homicide in Cumberland County last night. Investigators have charged 47-year-old John Patrick Fields of Pikeville with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder. Fields was taken into custody at the Vandever Road crime scene.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has released the identities of those killed and wounded in Tuesday night’s shootings. All four victims are Crossville residents.

The body of 47-year-old Lowell “Chip” Simmons II was found in a trash heap at a vacant lot along the 80 block of Critter Creek Road around 6 Tuesday evening; 23-year-old MaKayla Laray Manning was pronounced dead at 2593 Vandever Road. She was shot around 10 p.m.

Wounded in the Vandever Road shooting were 42-year-old Eleashea Alene Curry and 39-year-old Joseph Manning; both were taken to U.T. Medical Center in Knoxville.

TBI agents had initially said Simmons had been shot, but have since walked back that statement, now indicating his cause of death is not certain. Autopsies on Simmons and MaKayla Manning will be conducted at the state medical examiner’s office in Nashville to determine precise causes of death.

The TBI, Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department, Tennessee Highway Patrol and the office of District Attorney General Bryant Dunaway are investigating.

Fields is being held in the Cumberland County jail on $5 million bond. He’s due to appear in court March 18.

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