Man carries machete into Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office lobby

LAWRENCE COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — It’s not something you see often: a shirtless man wielding a machete.

It happened early Sunday morning at the main lobby of the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office.

Lawrence County Sheriff John Myers has been in law enforcement for a long time and said it’s a first for him.

“I tell people there’s never a dull moment in this line of work,” Myers said.

Video from that morning shows the shirtless man entering the lobby holding a board and a machete.

“Obviously distraught, fighting something and the whole time there swinging a machete like he has something after him,” Myers said.

That’s when the 59-year-old began banging on the metal jail door.

“No, we don’t see this every day,” Myers said. “Normally, people are trying to break out of jail, not break into jail.”

Moments later, the suspect is ranting and waving the machete and board wildly, swaying them back and forth.

“He has mental issues, seeing things,” Myers said. “He said he had evil spirits chasing him, and that was the reason why he was trying to gain entry into the jail.”

News 2 asked Myers, who spoke with the suspect after the fact, why the suspect had a machete and a board.

“No idea,” Myers said. “He just said they were evil spirits, and they were from an alternate universe.”

Jail staff called 911, and Lawrenceburg police arrived and ordered the suspect to drop the weapon.

Body camera footage shows the brief confrontation.

“Drop it,” an officer said.

The suspect dropped the machete.

“Drop the board,” an officer said.

The suspect dropped the board.

The man was quickly arrested without further incident.

According to Myers, the man claims not to drink or do drugs.

“Exactly, and we don’t know that,” Myers said. “We don’t know what his intentions are; we don’t know that. We don’t know what kind of mental problems he is having; we just know there’s a guy banging on a jail door inside the lobby of the sheriff’s office at 12:30 in the morning with a machete and a board.”

The suspect is in jail under no bond. He is charged with disorderly conduct.

Myers told News 2 that he spoke with the man’s family and informed them of various county services that might be helpful once the suspect gets out of jail.