TBI arrests suspect after Decatur County officer-involved shooting review

A Decatur County officer-involved shooting that began as an attempted arrest has moved into state hands, with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation saying it arrested and charged a suspect after the encounter in Parsons. The case drew in the bureau at the request of 24th Judicial District Attorney General Matt Stowe, a sign that the incident was treated as more than a routine local arrest.

The timeline released in the case points to a confrontation in the 100 block of Gilbert Street, where deputy marshals located 34-year-old Anthony Phoenix, who was wanted on arrest warrants from Henderson County and Kentucky. Authorities said Phoenix fled in a vehicle, led officers on a pursuit, and shots were fired at the vehicle during the attempt to stop him. No one was injured or struck.

Phoenix was later booked into the Decatur County Jail and faced charges of attempted first-degree murder and felony evading arrest, with no bond. Those charges, along with the use-of-force review, put the episode squarely in the middle of both local criminal court and state-level oversight.

The TBI says it handles most of Tennessee’s use-of-force cases as an independent, fact-finding agency, which is why Stowe’s request matters. In a case like this, investigators are expected to collect evidence, interview witnesses and sort out what happened before any broader prosecutorial decisions are made. For Decatur County residents, that means the shooting is not just a law enforcement moment, but part of a longer accountability process that can reach into court records, agency reports and future charging decisions.

It was not immediately clear whether body-camera or dash-camera footage exists, and the status of the deputy marshals involved was not detailed in the available information. The TBI says fatal officer-involved shooting investigative records from incidents on or after May 4, 2017 become public only after the investigation and prosecutorial review are complete, a rule that shows how slowly these cases can move through the system. In a county like Decatur, the outcome will matter not only for the suspect and the officers involved, but for public trust in how force is reviewed when an arrest attempt turns into a shooting.