The Great Smoky Mountain Journal

Staff Reports

Posted: Monday, January 01, 2018 12:29 PM

Knoxville Police Review Panel Taking Second Look Into Case Where Knoxvile Officer Pulled Gun On Woman

 The Knoxville police officer who pulled a gun on a woman is getting a second look. Knoxville's Police Advisory and Review Committee (PARC) met to review the matter Thursday.

Tonya Jameson said while she was switching the license tags from her old car to a car she had just bought, Knoxville police officer Matthew Janish approached her with a gun.

The car once belonged to officer Janish's mother-in-law, and he said he thought Jameson was stealing it.

On Thursday, PARC met to discuss what happened, what should have happened and what could have happened.

The meeting brought up very serious topics including cultural competency, training and protocol.

However, Knoxville Police Chief Rausch said the most important thing is that both Jameson and Janish remained calm.

"Regardless of what this person thought or that person thought, everybody remained calm," Rausch said Thursday. "That's what is vital. Neither side escalated, and that's why it turned out as positive as it did."


"I reacted out of self-preservation, so my thing was to not get shot, so my whole thing was to stay calm, to keep him calm, so he wouldn't shoot me," Jameson said during the meeting. "So that was my goal."

During Thursday's meeting, Chief Rausch defended officer Janish's actions.

Members of the PARC plan to make a recommendation about the case in the next couple of weeks. The officer was previously cleared by the department of any wrong-doing.