Those choosing a career in law enforcement run risks every single day that they serve. Certainly, we know that the mean streets of America’s cities are full of dangers that can spell serious injury or even death for a police officer on the beat.
It is therefore even more tragic that one police officer in Tennessee died on Saturday, allegedly at the hands of his own wife after being shot during a domestic row.
James “Chip” Smith, 41, of the Red Bank police department was shot in the stomach by his spouse and later died in hospital.
According to local network WVLT8, police responded to a reported shooting around 7:20 pm on the 3000 block of Winfield Dunn Parkway. Officers said when they arrived on the scene they found a man suffering what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
When police reached him, Smith was lying on his back on the grass with his wife kneeling down next to him with her hands on his stomach, court documents state.
The critically injured man was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center where doctors frantically tried to save him. However, he was later pronounced dead.
Smith’s wife, 37-year-old Melissa Smith, was arrested and faces first-degree murder charges. She was transported to the Sevier County Jail.
A police statement said a handgun was recovered from the scene and the investigation is ongoing. There was no further information on what had sparked the fatal confrontation between husband and wife.
Melissa Smith has been charged with first-degree murder and carrying a weapon while under the influence, according to online jail records.
A statement posted to Facebook by the Red Bank Police Department said that Smith had “many years of law enforcement service” experience, and added that, “For those that ever met him or know him, they know that he was kind and always willing to do anything to help you.”
The couple was from Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee.
 | SODDY-DAISY, TENNESSEE |
|---|---|
| Location: | 18 miles north of Chattanooga |
| Population | 13,717 |
| Median Household Income: | $37,163 |
| Quirky Fact: | “Soddy” is an anglicization of Tsati, a shorter form of a Cherokee word for the Muskogean Koasati people who lived there in the 18th century prior to Cherokee migration; Daisy took its name from Daisy Parks, the daughter of Thomas Parks, a senior executive in the Tabler-Cleudup Coal & Coke Company |