Saturday night around 9:30 p.m., three Dyersburg police officers were conducting a traffic stop on a vehicle on Frank Maynard near the Primary school, when officers heard gunfire coming from south of their location possibly in the area of Ewell Street. The gunfire was close with officers hearing tree limbs breaking from the rounds being fired in the wooded lot between the officers and Ewell Street.
Officers abandoned the traffic stop and immediately responded to Ewell Street along with multiple DPD officers. A search of the area and interviews with various individuals who heard the gunshots led the officers to the 1500 block of Ewell. Contact was made with Jeffery Atwell, 25, Dyersburg, who lives in the home. Atwell told law enforcement that fireworks were being shot. Law enforcement also observed Marcus Akins, 24, Jackson, TN, inside the residence and was known to law enforcement to be a convicted felon, and wanted for failure to appear. Law enforcement located an AK-47 that was still hot to the touch lying next to Akins’ chair. Additionally, law enforcement located two magazines loaded with 7.62 ammunition inside the residence, and spent shell casings outside of the residence.
Akins is charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, and reckless endangerment due to the close proximity to the officers on the traffic stop, heavily traveled roadway, school, and homes. Akins was jailed pending Dyersburg City Court action.
Atwell was cited to court and released with a citation for manufacture, sale, and discharge of fireworks.