ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (AP) — The official who staged a security drill that disrupted a county commission meeting with guns and mock hostage-takers has been suspended while an investigation is under way.
Ernest Jackson, the emergency management director, will be off the job until the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation finishes its probe of Monday’s drill, which left officials, law enforcement and members of the public upset and angry, Carter County Mayor Dale Fair said.
The Monday meeting was about to take up two tax proposals when three men and a woman burst in with guns drawn and claimed to be taking hostages. One man threatened to explode a bomb with a device he was holding, and another fired a shot, which turned out to be a blank.
As the meeting dissolved in confusion, Jackson announced it was only a drill.
The sheriff and a few commissioners were told about the drill a few minutes before the meeting but didn’t know the details. The city police didn’t know a drill was planned and responded to what they thought was a hostage situation.
“I had not been informed that this was a drill. I thought the gun and the bomb detonation device looked real,” Fair said. “I am just glad no one was physically injured.”
The votes on a property tax hike and a new wheel tax had to be postponed.
Renee Bowers, who will take over while Jackson is suspended, said her agency had been trying to make county disaster drills more realistic.
“We may not face a threat from international terrorists, but we can still face a terrorist threat,” Bowers said.
A least one local resident saw humor in the situation, printing up and selling T-shirts that read, “I survived the terrorist attack at the Carter County Courthouse.”
what a way to get a property tax hike postponed!
Gotta love it.