(News Sentinel photo)

By News Sentinel Staff

A Lenoir City Police Department officer has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation into his fatal shooting of an alleged DUI driver who attempted to flee a traffic stop early Sunday, officials said.

Officer Tyrel Lorenz, 29, was identified as the officer involved in the shooting, reported shortly after 1 a.m. outside Bimbo's convenience store, 1204 U.S. Highway 321, according to a joint statement released Monday by Lenoir City Police Chief Don White and 9th Judicial District Attorney General Russell Johnson.

Lorenz had answered an E-911 call from the Ruby Tuesday's restaurant directly across the highway from Bimbo's regarding three people who had just left in a pickup, the statement reads.

Lorenz located the pickup at the store as the driver was refueling the truck. The officer had placed one of the vehicle's passengers in handcuffs when the driver, 30-year-old Joshua William Grubb of Clinton, began to drive away, authorities said.

"Lorenz commanded the driver to stop several times before Lorenz somehow ended up in the back bed of the pickup truck," a news release states. "Once in the truck bed Lorenz was still yelling at the driver to stop.

"It was after Lorenz was in the bed of the pickup and the truck was speeding away that Lorenz apparently shot the driver of the truck."

The pickup traveled into oncoming traffic down the wrong side of the four-lane divided highway and across the overpass above Interstate 75 before it struck a utility pole, less than a mile from convenience store, authorities said.

Lorenz, who was not hurt, immediately began to render first aid to Grubb, who had been shot multiple times, the release states. Grubb was pronounced dead at the scene by EMS personnel.

The two passengers in the truck now faces charges, including Brandon Lawrence Taylor, 31, of Clinton, who ran from the scene while still in handcuffs as Lorenz tried to stop Grubb, the police chief said.

"He went behind the gas station area, removed his shirt and was able to take his shoes off and get the handcuffs around in front of him," White said. "And I'm assuming he was trying to conceal the handcuffs with his shirt, went down across the interstate and went into two of the local hotels trying to use a phone."

White said Taylor was found in the bathroom of the Day's Inn motel by a deputy from the Loudon County Sheriff's Office.

The other passenger, Toni Ann Sutton, 40, of Heiskell, was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia.

Sutton has a criminal history in Anderson County dating back to 1999, including charges of drug possession, possession of drug paraphernalia, identity theft, driving on a suspended or revoked license and resisting arrest.

Taylor, too, has a history of arrests in Anderson County on charges including aggravated assault, evading arrest and DUI.

Grubb was charged with DUI, driving on a suspended or revoked license and violation of the implied consent law in Anderson County in 2013.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is handing the investigation into the shooting. Autopsy and toxicology results are pending, and a forensics analysis of the scene is not yet complete, the release states.

Johnson's office is reviewing available footage from Lorenz's in-cruiser camera and body camera, as well as video surveillance footage from Bimbo's.

Johnson tentatively expects to present the results of the TBI probe to a Loudon County grand jury at its next meeting April 11 or 12.

White said the police department will conduct a "critical incident debriefing" later this week with all officers who responded to the scene, including Lorenz.

Lorenz has been with the Lenoir City Police Department since July 2015, and has been a law enforcement officer since 2010. He previously served as a deputy with the Roane County Sheriff's Office.

White said it was a tough situation for the officers to have to go through.

"This is the thing that you never want to happen in your career is to have to use deadly force," he said. "It's unfortunate; but everybody's managing and we're going to get through it."