The Anderson County Sheriff’s Department is investigating to dtermine how a man ended up with a serious gunshot wound to his leg.
Early Tuesday morning, at around 1:30 am, deputies were called to a home on Leinart Lane. When they arrived, they saw two men standing over an unconscious man bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound to the leg. A loaded 9mm pistol was found nearby as well and secured.
The victim, identified as James Ferguson, was assessed and stbilized by EMS personnel, who then transported him by ambulance to UT Medical Center, where his condition was not immediately available.
Deputy Tyler Culver interviewed the men found at the scene and was told that they had seen Ferguson’s pickup pull into the driveway, “squealing the tires,” before backing up and abruptly stopping. When they went to talk to the man, they noticed he was acting strangely and when Ferguson opened the door to the truck, he collapsed unconscious on the ground. One of the men applied pressure to the wound in Ferguson’s leg while the second man ran to a nearby home to call 911.
Investigators determined that at some point before he showed up on Leinart Lane, Ferguson had been at the Weigel’s store in Rocky Top. A cashier there told deputies that she had seen Ferguson in the cab of his Ford Ranger pickup with an unidentified woman, and that while he was in the parking lot, was approached and spoken to by a second woman.
At this point, it is unclear, according to the incident report, if the gunshot wound was self-inflicted, accidental or if it was deliberate, but the incident remains under investigation.