The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Source:
Tuesday, January 01, 2019 02:41 PM
Blount Deputies: Man Cut Father With Machete Before Attempting To Strangle Him
The Blount County Sheriff's Office responded to a 9-1-1 call about a possible domestic disturbance and hostage situation just after 9 p.m. on West Odell Road in Maryville. Once there, deputies said they saw the suspect — 38-year-old Thomas Patty — standing outside a red SUV with a passenger inside.
Deputies approached the SUV and said they saw Patty pick up a "long slender object" lying in the grass.
"It wasn't until he aggressively raised it above his head that I realized it was a machete," the deputy wrote in the arrest report.
The responding deputies then prepared for a possible attack and took cover. They allegedly told Patty to drop the machete and he threw it into the yard, but he would not drop another item he was holding in his other hand because he said he claimed he had "not done anything wrong."
Patty allegedly then began to step away as if he were going to run, but instead dropped the items — later identified as car keys and a pocket knife — and "took a fighting stance" as one of the deputies approached. According to the report, the other deputy moved behind Patty without him knowing and grabbed his left wrist. Patty allegedly fought the arrest, and deputies took him to the ground and handcuffed him.
Once deputies had the suspect in custody, they spoke with the passenger and victim, 67-year-old William Patty. He told deputies that his son called him at around 6:30 p.m. asking for food and money, and he took it to him at the Odell Lane residence.
Once William was ready to leave, his son allegedly didn't want him to and followed William to his SUV pleading for him to come back inside. After the father denied his son's plea, Thomas reportedly became angry and unsuccessfully tried to remove his father from the SUV against his will. William told deputies his son went back inside to retrieve the machete.
According to the arrest report, Thomas then "placed the sharpened edge of the machete making contact with William's cheek, resulting in a superficial laceration." His father still refused to return, and Thomas then allegedly took a cord used to chain a bike and tried to strangle him. His father said that Thomas was unable to strangle him and was attempting to pull him out of the car again when deputies arrived.
William refused medical treatment for cuts on his face and hand, and declined to press criminal charges in reference to a window on his SUV that Thomas is suspected of breaking during the scuffle.
Thomas was taken to the Blount County Jail on charges of domestic violence with aggravated assault and vandalism.