Ooltewah manhunt suspect caught on camera with gun before deadly SWAT standoff

From Local 3 News: UPDATE: Video exclusively obtained by Local 3 News shows an Ooltewah man walking in the middle of the road while holding a gun, just moments before he engaged in a shootout with Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office deputies.

The deadly standoff ended with the man running into his home on Rising Fawn Lane, where deputies say the house caught fire.

Authorities confirm the man did not survive.

The incident began with a shots-fired investigation.

Deputies responded to the area after reports came in about a man walking around with a gun.

In the video, the man is seen with the gun as children play nearby.

The residents in the community, who provided the footage to Local 3 News, said that this wasn’t the first time deputies have responded to the location over shots being fired.

“It’s like once every three or four months,” said one local resident, who spoke off-camera. “It can be scary at times.”

When deputies arrived at the scene, they saw two adults and a baby coming from the area of the home.

Neighbors, who did not want to be identified, said that those three people had lived with the man.

After firing shots at the deputies, the man closed himself up inside the house and refused to come out.

Residents say that aside from the occasional gunfire, the man typically did not cause trouble in the neighborhood.

“I don’t know what could have triggered him to start shooting at the officers,” one resident said.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) reports that Hamilton County SWAT attempted to negotiate with the man and even deployed hot gas in the home in an effort to force him out. However, the situation took a tragic turn when the home went up in flames.

Authorities have not determined whether the man intentionally set the fire or if the hot gas used by deputies caused it.

Sheriff Austin Garrett stated that the gas deployed during the SWAT operation has the potential to start a fire depending on its surroundings.

"It does have the ability to start a fire. It depends on what's around it, where it’s launched, and the environment that it’s in," Garrett said.

During the shootout, sheriff’s deputies believe they shot the man, based on the blood found on the porch during the SWAT operation.

Though no one else was injured during the standoff, residents expressed concerns over the close proximity of the gunman to their children.

"It’s very scary because you don’t know if he would just do something that would affect our family,” one neighbor said.

The investigation is ongoing.