An Elizabethton man accused in a series of October 28, 2013, drive-by shootings has been arrested on a local indictment, days after he was sentenced to 54 months in federal prison on a weapons charge.
Two women, two vehicles and five homes in the Dry Creek community were hit in the drive-by shootings.
Michael James Brummitt, 44, 141 Brummitt Lane, Elizabethton, was arrested Friday by Carter County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Amanda Little on a March 3 grand jury indictment charging him with six counts of reckless endangerment, three counts of vandalism, two counts of reckless aggravated assault, tampering with evidence and felony evading arrest. Brummitt was in federal custody at the time the indictment was returned.
According to the arrest warrants from Oct. 29, 2013, Brumitt and his cousin Tommy Brummitt, who is also accused in the shootings, traveled to the area of 1244 Dry Creek Road on Oct. 28 and fired shots into the home of an ex-girlfriend.
The warrants say that while CCSD officers were at the home collecting information, reports came back that shots had been fired into four other homes in the neighborhood.
The two women who were shot during the incident lived at different houses. One woman was reported to have told investigators she was standing on her porch when she was hit with shotgun pellets. The other woman reported to officers she was sitting in her living room when she heard a noise and then felt pain in her back, which she did not immediately contribute to being shot.
At another house, a woman and two children, ages 8 and 12, were home when a shotgun blast broke the front window of their home. They were not injured but did come in contact with glass and debris.
Witnesses told police the shooters were in a black Chevrolet S-10. Officers in the neighborhood spotted the vehicle and pursued it to a home at 141 Brummitt Lane.
Deputies reported recovering a Ruger .22-caliber revolver, a Martin .22-caliber and an Iver Johnson 12-gauge shotgun.
On Oct. 29, officers returned to Dry Creek Road after residents at a another home found their vehicles had been struck by shotgun pellets.
Brummitt appeared in General Sessions Court on Dec. 27 and waived his right to a preliminary hearing. He was bound over to the grand jury, which returned an indictment on March 3.
He was scheduled to appear in Criminal Court on March 24, but was already in federal custody.
On Sept. 22, Michael Brummitt was sentenced to serve 54 months in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to a press release from the office of United States Attorney William C. Killian. On Monday, Tommy Brummitt, 43, was sentenced to serve 188 months in federal prison, also for being a felon in possession of a firearm. According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Tommy Brummitt was subject to the provisions of the Armed Career Criminal Act, which provides for a minimum mandatory sentence of 15 years for possession of a firearm after three prior felony convictions for violent offenses or drug trafficking offenses.
The release said both Tommy and Michael Brummitt pleaded guilty to possession of firearms after having been previously convicted of a felony offense.