Two men accused of shooting a Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) trooper, nearly taking his life, appeared in a Cookeville court Friday morning.
Warning: Some viewers may find the video in this story disturbing.
PUTNAM COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — Two men facing charges after a Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) trooper was shot in July appeared in a Cookeville court Friday morning.
Braze Rucker and Timothy Davis Jr. were arrested in connection with the July 19 shooting that left Trooper Adam Cothron critically injured along Interstate 40 in Putnam County near the Burgess Fall exit.
Officials reported that Cothron pulled over a white Kia Forte for a traffic violation and was shot during the interaction. The car fled on Highway 109 near Gallatin and was later found abandoned in Sumner County. As a result, authorities released photos of the passenger involved in the incident — identified as Rucker — and issued a Blue Alert for him.
“What happened to our trooper is a heinous, horrific, just almost unhuman type of an action. It did not have to happen. He was pulled over for a traffic stop; it may have led to just a simple, minor, misdemeanor citation, but it did not,” Lt. Bill Miller, a public information officer for THP, told News 2 following the incident. “It led to a trooper fighting for his life. It left a wife and this trooper’s children at home in fear that their husband and father may not come home.”
Two days after the shooting, law enforcement announced that Rucker — who had also been added to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s (TBI) “Most Wanted” list — had been captured by Kentucky State Police in Princeton, Kentucky.
Then, on July 22, THP reported Davis was detained in Davidson County and later booked into the Putnam County Jail on charges related to the trooper-involved shooting.
Cothron spent days in the hospital before he was moved to a rehabilitation facility in Atlanta, where he continues therapy and recovery.
More than two months later, on Friday, Oct. 4, Rucker and Davis appeared in a Cookeville courtroom for a preliminary hearing. During the hearing, a fellow trooper recalled how he rushed to Cothron’s aid after the shooting.
“He was in front of his patrol unit, almost directly with the center of the patrol unit, and he was almost standing and they’re actually holding him up,” said Trooper Ridge Long. “At that time, I ran up and I grabbed him, and I know Adam very personally, I grabbed him and said ‘Adam, what has happened to you?’ And he advised me that he had been shot.”
News 2 was in the courtroom when body camera video of incident was shown, which captured the moments the passenger rolled down the window and shots were fired toward the trooper. Cothron is then seen falling backwards and laying alongside the interstate as the suspect vehicle drove off.
Witnesses who took the stand Friday said Cothron had pulled the car over for a window tint violation. The body camera footage also showed the Kia also had a temporary tag.
Also shown in the courtroom during Friday’s hearing was video of a suspect matching Davis’ description at a gas station. The suspect—believed to be Davis — is seen going to a Kia Forte outside, grabbing the gasoline nozzle and aiming it inside the vehicle.
On the stand, a TBI agent revealed that the suspect sprayed gasoline in the backseat of the vehicle and detailed what he saw when the Kia Forte was found.
“When I personally observed it, it was a white Kia Forte bearing a Tennessee temporary tag and it had a fire that appeared had been started in the back passenger seat,” said TBI Special Agent Luke Webb.
After Friday’s hearing, the trial is set to go to a grand jury.