By Chris Yow
Editor
CLAY — Clay City Hall was on high alert Monday, Sept. 21, when a report of a gunshot was heard near the building. City Manager Ronnie Dixon, a constable and reserve deputy with the Jefferson County sheriff’s department, said he did his best to diffuse the situation, although one man was stopped and searched in the parking lot of the building.
Dixon said two women walked into the city hall building to purchase a tag when a gunshot was heard nearby. A man in the city hall parking lot was walking toward the building from the Brewster Road entrance about the same time. According to Dixon, he was told the man in the parking lot had a gun and was coming toward the building. Dixon then put all employees and visitors into a room and locked all entrances to the building.
“The two women walking in to get a tag and a woman behind the city hall in a dance studio was checking her mail, and they ran into the building saying, ‘There is a man in the driveway with a gun and he’s shooting.’”Dixon said.
The unknown man attempted to enter through the front door, but was unable to do so and he turned to walk away. At that time, Dixon said he walked outside and instructed the man to raise his hands and then to lie on the ground. Dixon frisked the individual and found no weapon, but the man did have a set of keys in his hands that were found near the road.
“What the girls said was a silver gun in his hand was actually a silver key ring that he’d picked up,” Dixon said. “The shots fired were across the street.”
Deputies arrived on the scene within minutes and a report was filed for the gunshot and for the incident at city hall.
A man whom Dixon said was simply called “Coach” was said to have shot his gun into the ground to force his girlfriend to leave the shopping center across from the city hall around the same time the man in the parking lot was walking towards the city hall building.
Two deputies recovered a casing from the gun according to Dixon, as well as finding the hole in the asphalt, but Dixon was unsure whether the slug was found inside the hole.
“It was all coincidence that the ladies thought that he had a gun because he was picking up the keys at the same time the shot was fired,” Dixon said. “I reacted the way I was supposed to react to keep everyone safe.”
Efforts to reach the Jefferson County sheriff’s department for comment were unsuccessful.