2 Blount County Deputies Shot During Gun Battle With Armed Suspect in Rockford

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Blount County, Tennessee — On June 11, 2024, Deputies with the Blount County Sheriff’s Office responded to a welfare check and possible domestic at a residence on Jacob Springs Boulevard in Rockford. When Deputy Corbin Smith, 25, and Deputy Edward Walker, 28, arrived on the scene at 3:19 p.m., the offender walked out the garage door. Deputies briefly lost sight of him before he reappeared and engaged them with gunfire.

The deputies sought cover behind their vehicles. Deputy Walker's body camera video shows him being shot in the leg about four minutes after he arrived at the scene. Deputy Walker asks Deputy Smith to grab a tourniquet for him from his uniform, then hands Smith his rifle so he can apply it to his leg. About three minutes later, Smith is shot in the leg. He's seen on his own body camera video taking an additional tourniquet from Walker's uniform and applying it to his own leg. Several minutes after being shot Deputy Walker and Deputy Smith were told by other responding deputies they could escape the scene.

Deputies were able to rescue Deputy Smith and Deputy Walker while taking gunfire from the suspect. Responding deputies returned gunfire at the offender, and he retreated inside the residence. Additional units, including the Sheriff’s Office SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics Team), as well as multiple law enforcement agencies from the area, responded to assist. After receiving information that the suspect threatened to shoot an elderly female victim inside the home, members of the Sheriff’s SWAT team entered the residence and took the suspect, 59-year-old Ronald Reed Millsaps, into custody shortly after 5:00 p.m. without incident.

The woman who was inside the residence was not injured, but she was transported by AMR Ambulance Service to an area hospital for observation. After the shooting, Millsaps fired between 100 and 300 shots during the attack, according to the Sheriff's Office. Millsaps, who appeared in court for the first time on Monday afternoon, has been charged with two counts of attempted criminal homicide, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated domestic assault, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault. He's being held in jail in lieu of more than $2 million bond.