Attacker is hospitalized after breaking in, assaulting Lawrenceburg residents

According to reports filed through the Lawrenceburg Police Department, officers were dispatched to a North Mahr Avenue apartment at 2:44 a.m. The 911 caller reported that two men had broken into the apartment with a gun and were assaulting her roommate. By the time they arrived on the scene, officers report that the residents had detained one of their attackers. They said that the second, wearing a black hoodie, had left prior to their arrival.

Officers searched the immediate area and noticed a white Ford truck behind the apartment complex. They said that it was being driven by a man wearing a black hoodie. Although officers ordered him to stop, they report that the driver fled from the area.

One of the residents identified the driver as thirty-six year old Jason Keith Smith of Knoxville, Tennessee. Officers report that they were able to locate Smith’s truck a short time later behind a shop on North Locust Avenue, owned by a relative. He exited through a roll-up door when officers approached and was subsequently placed under arrest.

Two of the victims of the attack sustained what were classified as “severe injuries.” One was transported by ambulance to Southern Tennessee Regional Health Systems, Lawrenceburg for medical attention while the second declined transport. Emergency Medical Service employees rendered aid at the scene.

Witnesses and the victims of the assault reported that Smith, along with forty-three year old Summertown resident William Corey Musselwhite, had entered the home wielding a stick and brass knuckles and began striking the two injured victims. They were able to fend them off and detain Musselwhite, they said, and Smith fled from the apartment.

Reports show that Musselwhite was transported to the hospital due to injuries he sustained in the incident. He was hospitalized, therefore officers obtained warrants charging him with the crimes of aggravated burglary and aggravated assault, to be served once he was released from the facility.

Smith was transported to the Lawrence County Detention Center where he was booked under one count of aggravated burglary and two counts of aggravated assault. He was incarcerated under a bond of $30,000.

Smith is scheduled to answer the charges in General Sessions Court on January 5, 2017.