Tuesday afternoon, Cumberland County deputies were called to a Deck Road address for a physical altercation. While still en route, dispatch advised one of the parties involved had left in an orange car. Deputies spotted the vehicle on Browntown Road, turning onto Sparta Highway, and so conducted a traffic stop. The driver said his younger brother had been involved in a squabble with 29-year-old Jim Edward Tanner of Crossville. The driver said he wasn’t there during the altercation, but said Tanner hit his vehicle while attempting to leave.

Continuing on to Deck Road, deputies met up with Tanner, who claimed he had given another man a ride down the road and, according to the incident report, “they jumped him and then shot at him,” striking his vehicle’s rear window.

Tanner would not reply when asked who the male subjects were, but kept saying deputies let them get away in the orange car.

The report indicates Tanner was extremely intoxicated and unable to answer questions and, upon being told deputies couldn’t help him if he didn’t answer their questions, he “started to become belligerent.”

At that point, deputies left and headed to a Benefit Road home, where they met up with the brother of the man in the orange car. The police report indicates the man said Tanner “came to his residence and began to cause problems.” He said he and Tanner got into a verbal altercation about a knife, which escalated into a physical dustup. Tanner then allegedly got into his vehicle and backed into a tree, breaking his back window in the process. The other man said Tanner struck the orange car with the front of his vehicle, then drove toward him in an attempt to run him over, forcing him to jump onto the porch to avoid being struck.

Deputies noticed marks on the tree, glass around the tree and tire tracks through the yard and close to the porch, consistent with the man’s statements. He also claimed to have video footage of the incident.

Three hours later, a different set of deputies was summoned to the same Deck Road address for an unwanted person, who turned out to be Tanner.

Tanner, who was still described as heavily intoxicated, was attempting to load items into a running SUV. Deputies surmised he was attempting to leave the residence in the vehicle; but, due to both his inebriation and the suspended status of his license, he was prevented from doing so.

Deputies offered to give him a ride if he could find somewhere to go. The arrest report states after about 25 minutes, he “was unable to find anywhere to go and told me to just take him to jail.”

Meanwhile, because Tanner was on the property without the consent of the homeowner, he was arrested for criminal trespassing and banned from the property. He was placed under $500 bond and is due in court April 22.