The Claiborne County Sheriff's Office deputy who fired into Interstate 75 traffic last year and kept his badge lost his job this week just as the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation began looking into the case.

That won't halt the TBI probe, said Russell Johnson, 9th Judicial District attorney general, whose territory includes the stretch of I-75 along the Loudon-Monroe county line where Deputy Noah Arnwine fired a .38-caliber pistol through a cruiser windshield during rush hour Nov. 2.

"We'll be asking for the records on this incident and asking him for a statement," Johnson said Tuesday.

Fired for insubordination

Claiborne County Sheriff Bob Brooks said Arnwine, whose mother works as the sheriff's secretary, was fired Monday for insubordination.

"He was told to go up into the (jail) tower (where cells are monitored), and he refused," the sheriff said. "That was the end of that."

Johnson, who learned about the shooting from a Knox News story last month, said Arnwine's firing would have come days after he contacted the TBI on Thursday and asked agents to look into the case.

The sheriff said he didn't know about the probe until asked.

"This was a totally separate incident," he said.

Interstate roulette

Deputy Cody Lankford said he watched Arnwine empty all but one bullet from the revolver, spin the cylinder and point it Russian-roulette-style into traffic around 4 p.m. Nov. 2 near the Philadelphia exit as they headed back from dropping off an inmate at Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute in Chattanooga.

"I don't think he meant to shoot, but it went off," Lankford wrote in his report. "I was on the phone with my brother. ... He heard me say, 'Holy (expletive), don't do it!' Then the shot rang off."

The bullet shattered the cruiser's windshield but apparently missed any of the passing cars and trucks. Lankford said he nearly ran off the road.

Arnwine kept his job in spite of the shooting and wasn't charged. Brooks said the deputy received a written warning.

Mark Ellis, the former assistant chief deputy who investigated the case, says the sheriff ignored his advice that Arnwine be fired, kept the case quiet and instead forced Ellis out over a struggle with a jail inmate.

That struggle, which ended when Ellis used a stun gun to subdue the inmate as he fought with half a dozen officers, led to Ellis' indictment on charges of assault and official oppression — what his attorney calls a case of selective enforcement and retaliation.

"I applaud the sheriff's decision-making — albeit late in nature — given the clear risk to human life that the officer's indifference created," said Ellis's lawyer, T. Scott Jones. "Now it's time for the politically motivated prosecution of Mark Ellis to be dismissed."

Johnson, the prosecutor who called in the TBI, said he didn't ask for the investigation until last week as he and other local authorities struggled to figure out which county the shooting happened in.

"We'll be wanting to find out how many shots were fired and any other details," Johnson said.