Josh Peterson

Manchester Mayor Lonnie Norman won a third term as mayor Thursday night, narrowly fending off challenger Steven Jones by just 61 votes.

Norman was able to pick up 962 votes to Jones’ 901. Those numbers are unofficial until certified by the election commission.

“I just want to thank the community for everything and now we want to get back to work and bring the community together and start working hard for Manchester,” Norman told Thunder Radio news.

Manchester voters also awarded all three incumbent Manchester aldermen another term. Chris Elam, Bob Bellamy and Ryan French all won another term as Manchester Aldermen. Elam took the most votes with 1101, Bellamy 969 and French with 859. Challenger Donny Parsley just missed out on the third and final spot for alderman, finishing with 782 votes. James Threet finished with 638 votes and Tammy Fuller 636.

“I want to thank everyone for all of the support through this campaign,” said Chris Elam, who won a second alderman term. “We are excited to work hard and do the best we can for Manchester over these next four years.”

Tullahoma Results

Tullahoma will have a new mayor and it will be Ray Knowis, who picked up 1840 votes to outpace Daniel Berry with 1502. In a write-in capaign, Eugene London finished with 746 votes and Karl Smithson garnered 72 votes. Knowis will take over for Lane Curlee, who did not seek another term.

Also,  Robin Dunn (3017) and Jenna Amacher (2394) each won Tullahoma Alderman seats. Ashli Shockley with 1726 votes finished third. 

Quick work by local law enforcement and help from citizens led to the arrest of a suspect who allegedly robbed the Manchester Dollar General late Wednesday afternoon

According to authorities, Joseph Davis McInnis entered the Dollar General at 918 Hillsboro Blvd. (near Food Lion) at approximately 7:33 p.m. Wednesday and threatened the clerk with a black pistol. He left the scene with cash from the business.

According to Manchester Police Department officials, officers and investigators were able to respond to the scene quickly and put out information to the public  that included photos and a description of the suspect and his vehicle. 

“We were able to put photos and information out to the public through social media in a matter of minutes through social media,” explained Manchester Police Department assistant chief Adam Floied. “We immediately started getting calls from citizens saying they had seen someone who matched that description and in the car (on the exit 114 side of town).”

Floied explained that Manchester Police and Coffee County Sheriff’s Department deputies flooded the area. Another citizen phoned police after they observed someone matching McInnis’ description behaving strange and shutting off his vehicle lights when deputies drove by.

Deputies were able to locate McInnis, who has an address in Stone Mountain, Ga. After he was arrested, officers found a loaded handgun near the driver’s seat and also found an additional high-capacity magazine nearby.

McInnis has been charged by Manchester Police with aggravated robbery. He has also been charged with aggravated robbery by Murfreesboro Police for a similar robbery that happened earlier in the day at CVS in Murfreesboro. Floied said McInnis is a convicted felon and faces weapons charges from the ATF.

“Local citizens really came through big for us on this case,” said Floied. “Without their help we may not have been able to capture him so quickly. We also got a lot of help from the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department. A real team effort by everyone.”

NOTE – an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the charges as aggravated burglary rather than aggravated robbery. It has been corrected. We apologize for the error. 

There are now 267 positive cases of COVID-19 in Coffee County as of 2 p.m. Thursday, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.

This number is up 28 from the previous day. The 267 cases represents approximately 0.47 percent of the county’s total population. All three school systems have said if total cases reaches 0.50 percent, the school’s will go to a hybrid schedule of in school and distance learning. 

Since testing began in March, there have been 482 positive tests in Coffee County. There have been 212 recoveries and three people have passed away in Coffee County leaving 267 active cases.

After a three day downward trend of active cases across the state, there was a slight uptick Thursday of about 200 new active cases. Overall, active cases are down by about 2,400 across the state for the week.
There have been 1,147 confirmed COVID-19 related deaths across the state since March and 5,109 hospitalizations. Currently, there are approximately 33,096 active cases across the state.

A Franklin County resident has been taken into custody by Franklin County Sheriff’s Office authorities and charged with criminal homicide.

The arrest is a culmination of an investigation that originated from a police report filed with the Winchester Police Department. Sheriff’s Office Investigator’s initiated an investigation Tuesday, August 4th in the early morning hours.

Through investigation, authorities were able to determine the location of the suspected homicide and also determine a suspect. Sheriff’s office personnel processed the scene and through further investigation were able to determine the location of the suspected victim.

At approximately 9:30pm Investigators were able to recover the body of the victim. The victim, identified as Franklin County resident Salvador Ontiveros was pronounced deceased by the county coroner at approximately 11:00pm. Another Franklin County resident, Hugo Cruz, 41-year-old male, was taken into custody and transported to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office where he was charged with Criminal Homicide. Cruz is currently being held under a $500,000.00 bond and has an initial court date set for Thursday September 3rd at 8:00am in Franklin County General Sessions Court.

Unemployment claims dropped significantly in Tennessee last week as the state saw federal COVID-19 pandemic unemployment benefits come to an end.

There were only 11,690 new claims for unemployment filed in Tennessee for the week ending Aug. 1. While this is still abnormally high, it is down from 19,461 the week before and 25,794 the week before that.

Continued claims also dipped by a large amount, down to 224,093. This is over 18,000 fewer than the prior week and is the biggest dip in continued claims since the pandemic began in March.