No Charges Will be Filed in Convenience Store Shooting

No charges will be filed against a good Samaritan who shot and killed a robbery suspect at a convenience store in East Ridge in June.

Hamilton County District Attorney Neil Pinkston explained in a letter to East Ridge Police Chief J.R. Reed that the actions of the man were justified.

The letter states:

“I have reviewed the case file of the June 30, 2016 wherein citizen Charles Russell shot and killed Anthony Edmonds. Edmonds had just performed a strong armed robbery with a butcher knife on a convenience store right before the shooting occurred. Under the facts and applicable Tennessee law, I conclude that the shooting is justified and than no charges should be filed against Mr. Russell.”

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.