Officer Down

Officer Down

Deputy Sheriff Anthony Shane Tate
Grundy County Sheriff's Department
Tennessee
End of Watch: Thursday, June 5, 2008
Age: 29
Tour of Duty: 3 years
Badge Number: 20

Incident Details

Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: Thursday, June 5, 2008
Weapon Used: Gun; Unknown type
Suspect Info: Committed suicide

Please observe a moment of silence in the memory of Deputy Sheriff Anthony Shane Tate.

Officers had been looking for Bryson for six to eight months when they found him around 3 a.m. Thursday at a mobile home in Monteagle.
Deputy Tate was shot and killed as he and a police officer from the Monteagle Police Department served a probation warrant on a suspect.

The suspect fatally shot Deputy Tate and shot the Monteagle officer in the vest before fleeing. The man was located at a home later in the day and committed suicide as officers attempted to talk him into surrendering.



Kermit Bryson died Friday around 12:30 a.m. at Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation director Mark Gwyn said agents found Bryson behind his girlfriend’s house Thursday evening and negotiated with him for about 20 minutes before he shot himself in the head.

Federal, state and local authorities launched a manhunt for Bryson after the Thursday morning shooting death of Deputy Shane Tate.

Monteagle Police Officer Brian Malhoit was grazed by a bullet but not seriously hurt. A reserve deputy also at the scene wasn’t injured.

Gwyn said there were other people in the home at the time of the shooting, although he declined to identify them.

Within hours of the shooting, armed officers were using dogs and helicopters to comb the rugged area at the southern end of the Cumberland Plateau in what TBI spokeswoman Kristin Helm described as “an absolute all-out manhunt.”

A neighbor and longtime friend of Bryson’s said shooting someone would be out of character for him.

“He’s not a bad guy. He had to freak out in some way,” said Tim D. Sanders, 30, before authorities found Bryson.

Sanders said he and Bryson spent weekends in jail together last summer and that the slain deputy was the jailer. He said Tate and Bryson were friendly.
Bryson’s criminal record includes convictions for theft, burglary and a jail escape in 2001.

Grundy County Mayor Ladue Bouldin said Tate was married with five young children and had graduated from Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Academy just two weeks ago.
Probation officials said the warrant was issued for Bryson because he failed drug screens and violated curfew while on probation for a 2007 felony marijuana possession charge.

Helm said the three officers approached Bryson’s mobile home carefully and made their way inside. Officers often serve warrants early in the morning, expecting that suspects will be asleep.

“The officer was actually shot inside the residence,” she said.
Bryson’s former mother-in-law, Marcia Crowe, said Bryson was married to her daughter for about a year before they divorced several years ago, and they have a 10-year-old daughter.

“I saw it on TV and I just couldn’t believe it,” Crowe, a 57-year-old from Dayton, said in a phone interview Thursday. “I expected him to steal, do dope and stuff like that, but I never thought he would kill someone.”

Brian Grisham, director of the training academy, called Tate a good officer and person.

“He seemed enthusiastic about what he was about to do,” Grisham said.

Deputy Tate had served with the Grundy County Sheriff's Department for 3 years. He is survived by his wife, son, four daughters, parents, two brothers, and sister.

Agency Contact Information
Grundy County Sheriff's Department
PO Box 218
Altamont, TN 37301

Phone: (931) 692-3466

Please contact the Grundy County Sheriff's Department for funeral arrangements or for survivor benefit fund information.