Former Lenoir City (garbage) truck driver arrested after allegedly showing loaded pistol

By Natalie Neysa Alund knoxnews.com

 

A former Lenoir City garbage truck driver appealing his recent termination is facing a weapons charge after allegedly brandishing a gun at his former place of employment.

Bradley Lynn Chambers, 34, of Browder Hollow Road was fired from his post with the city's Street/Sanitation Department on drug-related allegations in December, according to city officials.

A deputy court clerk said Chambers was slated to be arraigned today before Loudon County General Sessions Court Judge Rex Dale on a charge of carrying a weapon with the intent to go armed.

A Lenoir City Police Department arrest warrant shows that on March 1, Chambers visited the Street/Sanitation Department building at 199 S. C St. with a 9 mm pistol in the back of his waistband. Detective Jonathan Sartin, who wrote the warrant, said Chambers pulled the gun out and showed city employees it was loaded.

The warrant did not explain why he had the weapon or whether he threatened anyone. It did note that Chambers does not have a permit to carry a gun.

Lenoir City police officer Jason Felts took Chambers into custody at his home on an arrest warrant March 10, according to an arrest report.

Chambers, who did not return a phone call, posted a $1,000 bond March 11 and was released from the Loudon County jail, a jail spokesman said.

Chambers was fired after being found "slumped over, asleep and unseemingly responsive" in a city vehicle at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 26, 2010, according to a termination letter from Lenoir City Mayor Tony Aikens.

"Your appearance and behavior gave rise to the reasonable suspicion that you were under the influence of some type of medicine," Aikens wrote.

Chambers was then transported to Fort Loudoun Medical Center, where he underwent an examination that included a urine drug screen, according to the letter.

The results of the screening were not known Wednesday, but according to the letter, Chambers was fired Dec. 2 for violating the city's drug and alcohol policy.

Chambers, who City Attorney Jim Scott said had been a city employee for about 13 years, is appealing his termination and was slated for a civil service hearing on the matter March 24. The hearing was postponed, Scott said, because of Chambers' arrest. His lawyer, Greg Harrison, did not return a phone call Wednesday.