A district attorney in Tennessee is facing criminal charges for allegedly taking the law into his own hands — opening fire on wanted murder suspects as they fled from police — and accidentally striking a house with a woman and her three kids inside, according to local officials.
Chris Stanford, district attorney of Tennessee’s 31st Judicial District, was indicted Monday on charges of reckless endangerment and discharging a firearm into an occupied habitation for the November shooting in Smithville, which is about 70 miles east of Nashville . The incident occurred while authorities were attempting to arrest three suspects allegedly connected to a triple homicide, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation , which was responsible for probing what happened.
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The Warren and DeKalb County Sheriff’s Departments were working together to catch 28-year-old Caleb Dias Brookins, 21-year-old Hannah McKenzi Rose and 28-year-old Jessica Root that day. The trio was suspected to be involved in a triple murder in Warren County but were in DeKalb County when Stanford linked up with police to try and catch them.
Sanford, 43, of McMinnville, was allegedly pursuing suspects Rose and Brookins with local deputies and a Homeland Security officer, who also joined in on the manhunt for unknown reasons and got hit by a car that Rose and Brookins were driving — causing him to suffer a leg injury — when the illegal shooting occurred, according to police officials…