Shots Fired at Officers During Pursuit

The search for a man trying to evade arrest Monday night escalated with shots being fired at a patrol car during a pursuit before daybreak early Tuesday morning.
35 year old Kevin Glenn Smith remains at large and is wanted by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department. He has a criminal history of drug offenses, burglaries, thefts, and an escape. Smith is now facing new felony charges in DeKalb County. He also has warrants against him in Warren, Coffee, and Cannon County.
The story unfolded Monday evening when Detectives of the Sheriff’s Department went to a residence on Pea Ridge Road, Liberty to attempt to serve a Failure to Appear warrant on Smith’s girlfriend, 26 year old Lydia Renee Judkins of Jefferson Road, Smithville.
When Detectives made contact with Smith, who was in a Nissan Pathfinder, Smith started the engine and sped away, almost hitting the officers. Smith drove down a logging road where the officers could not follow in their patrol car and got away.
A couple of hours later, someone reported finding an overturned and abandoned Nissan Pathfinder on the Alexandria to Dismal Road. It was believed to be the same vehicle that Smith had been driving when he was last seen by Detectives on Pea Ridge Road. Sheriff Ray said that the Pathfinder was stolen from another county. The tag on the vehicle was also stolen from a different county.
Sheriff Ray said after the Pathfinder was found, other law enforcement agencies were summoned to join the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department in the search for Smith. “When we found the vehicle, we alerted Putnam County’s K-9 unit and they came over with their track dog. We also called for a THP helicopter to fly over with their fleer system which is a heat sensing device,” said Sheriff Ray in an interview with WJLE Tuesday night.
As help arrived, the sheriff’s department got a tip that Smith had already left the area. “We received information that Smith had already been picked up and taken to a residence in the city limits of Dowelltown. We left the scene on the Alexandria to Dismal Road where the Pathfinder was found and went to Dowelltown where we learned that somebody had taken Smith from there to meet someone around Statesville Road off Highway 96 in Wilson County. We got Wilson County officers to go with us over there to do some saturated patrols to see if we could find this vehicle but we never could locate it,” said Sheriff Ray.
On the way back before daybreak Tuesday morning, sheriff’s department detectives spotted a suspicious pickup truck in Dowelltown. But when they tried to stop it to investigate, the truck took off and a pursuit ensued. “On our way back when we were driving between Liberty and Dowelltown, detectives saw a white Toyota Tacoma that was suspicious. The truck was on Main Street in Dowelltown but turned onto Highway 70. When the detectives turned around on the vehicle, it began to flee. There were two people in the truck and by the direction of travel that the truck went, we believe Kevin Smith was one of the persons in that vehicle. The pursuit went from Highway 70 to Highway 53 in Liberty, then to Sycamore Road, Hawkins Hill Road, Highway 96, to Statesville Road and then to various roads off Statesville Road near where Smith had been dropped off earlier. During the pursuit, one of the persons in the truck fired a weapon numerous times at the lead patrol car. The detectives did not return fire. For safety of the officers and the public, the detectives backed off the pursuit. Wilson County Sheriff’s Department and Watertown Police Department officers were trying to get in position to get the truck stopped, but the driver kept taking roads left and right and finally got away,” said Sheriff Ray.
The Tacoma pickup is also believed to have been stolen because the tag on it was stolen in Wilson County only three days ago (Saturday).
Though Smith has not threatened to harm the public, he is believed to be armed and witnesses have claimed he has said that if he were to be approached by law enforcement officers, he would make them shoot him because he is not going back to prison.
If anyone has information as to the whereabouts of Smith, please call the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department or Central Dispatch at 215-3000. Smith has many tattoos on his body.
According to Sheriff Ray, Smith has no known primary residence. “Through our investigation, he and his girlfriend have been staying with friends or sleeping in vehicles,” he said.
Sheriff Ray wishes to thank Chief Mark Collins of the Alexandria Police Department for calling in an off duty officer when authorities thought the search for Smith might reach Alexandria.