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James Michael Farris

Age : 27

Gender : Male

Race : White

Date : 10/01/2021

Location : Wooded area behind the 9700 block of Berry Meadow Way

City : Soddy Daisy

County : Hamilton

State : Tennessee

Agency : Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office; Chattanooga Police Department; U.S. Marshals Service; Soddy Daisy Police Department; Tennessee Highway Patrol

Officer(s) :Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during attempted arrest

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 10/01/2021, a Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office deputy shot and killed 27-year-old James Michael Farris in a wooded area behind the 9700 block of Berry Meadow Way in Soddy Daisy during a multi-agency manhunt and attempted arrest.
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The encounter followed a homicide two days earlier. Chattanooga police said 29-year-old Frederick Alexander Williams was shot and killed on September 29 inside a residence in the 7300 block of Shady Vale Lane in East Brainerd. Investigators identified Farris as the person they believed was responsible and sought him on charges including criminal homicide and reckless endangerment. TBI placed Farris on its Most Wanted list on October 1 and described him as armed and dangerous.
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Police had located Farris the previous day in the Soddy Daisy area, but he fled into woods near Sequoyah Access Road. The search continued into the night, and authorities instructed some nearby residents to remain inside. On October 1, Hamilton County authorities reported three additional sightings of Farris in the area and said he appeared to be armed during two of them.
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Personnel from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, Chattanooga Police Department, U.S. Marshals Service, Soddy Daisy Police Department, Tennessee Highway Patrol and TBI participated in the effort to locate and arrest Farris. Officers eventually found him in woods behind Berry Meadow Way at approximately 3:30 p.m.
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According to the TBI’s preliminary account, Farris had a firearm and pointed it at officers when they encountered him. A Hamilton County deputy then fired, striking Farris. Farris was transported to a Chattanooga hospital, where he died from the gunshot wound. The allegation that Farris pointed the firearm comes from the official law-enforcement account and was the stated justification for the shooting.
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TBI opened an independent investigation at the request of 11th Judicial District Attorney General Neal Pinkston. TBI said its agents would collect evidence and interview witnesses before submitting the investigative findings to the district attorney for review. Tennessee law provides that investigative records from fatal TBI-investigated police shootings occurring after May 4, 2017 become public records after completion of both the TBI investigation and the prosecutorial function.
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A review of later publicly available reporting and court records did not identify a public challenge by Farris’ family or an eyewitness contradicting the police account of the final encounter. No encounter-related wrongful-death or civil-rights lawsuit was located.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office deputy who shot Farris has not been publicly identified. TBI does not release the names of officers involved in shootings and instead refers identification questions to the employing agency. Later publicly available coverage located for this update still describes the shooter only as a Hamilton County deputy.
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The institutional background of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office is particularly relevant because the department was already engulfed in a major civil-rights and misconduct scandal when Farris was killed. Former HCSO Deputy Daniel Wilkey had been indicted in 2019 on 44 criminal counts, including rape, sexual battery, official oppression, extortion, stalking and assault, arising from allegations concerning his conduct during traffic stops and other encounters while working as a deputy.
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Wilkey’s alleged conduct generated numerous federal civil-rights lawsuits against him and Hamilton County. Among the allegations were that Wilkey forcibly baptized a woman following a traffic stop, participated in an invasive roadside body search of a handcuffed man, used excessive force and engaged in sexual misconduct. Ten federal civil-rights claims associated with Wilkey were ultimately dismissed in 2023, and his 44 criminal charges were also later dismissed after prosecutors reported serious problems with the handling and preservation of the original prosecution file. Those later dispositions did not erase the underlying documented institutional crisis: at the time Farris was killed in 2021, HCSO was defending multiple federal cases arising from allegations of extraordinary on-duty misconduct by one of its former deputies.
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The department had also been involved in another police shooting the previous year in which the same deputy fired on a driver more than once. In August 2020, an HCSO deputy shot Ronald Andrew Hutson after a traffic stop became a pursuit and police alleged Hutson drove toward deputies after spinning out. Contemporary Chattanooga reporting highlighted that the deputy involved had previously shot another person, illustrating why identifying the deputy in Farris’ case remains important for determining whether the shooter had a prior use-of-force history.
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The combination of the unidentified shooter and the HCSO’s contemporaneous civil-rights problems makes the completed TBI investigative file especially significant. That record may contain the deputy’s identity, witness interviews, forensic evidence and other information necessary to independently evaluate the official allegation that Farris pointed a firearm immediately before the deputy shot him.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://tbinewsroom.com/2021/10/01/tbi-agents-investigating-officer-involved-shooting-in-hamilton-county-3/
https://www.wdef.com/deputies-shoot-murder-suspect-james-farris-during-capture/
https://www.wdef.com/fatal-shooting-in-east-brainerd-wednesday-night/
https://www.wdef.com/statement-from-family-of-shady-vale-shooting-on-capture-of-james-farris/
https://www.wvlt.tv/2021/10/01/tbi-searching-armed-dangerous-chattanooga-man/
https://3bmedianews.com/murder-suspect-dies-after-soddy-daisy-shoot-out/
https://www.tn.gov/tbi/crime-issues/crime-issues/officer-involved-shootings.html
https://www.wdef.com/court-dismisses-civil-rights-claims-against-hamilton-county-sheriffs-office/
https://www.wdef.com/deputy-long-ross-once-again-shoots-suspect/