Police ID weekend shooting victim; motive a mystery

Police this morning identified a Loudon County man who was found fatally shot in a wrecked vehicle this weekend in East Knoxville.

Jay Lloyd Rutherford, 37, was found about 11:26 p.m. dead in an Isuzu sports utility vehicle, according to Knoxville Police Department Lt. Doug Stiles. Rutherford had been shot, police said.

Police were alerted by a man who came home from work and discovered the vehicle had rolled through his chain link fence and into his yard, Stiles said. The resident reported what he thought was a minor traffic crash on Jefferson Avenue near Milligan Street.

When the first officer arrived, police realized the man had been shot. Stiles said Rutherford was dead at the scene and apparently had been shot “approximately two hours before it was called in.”

Stiles said it appears the shooting occurred near where the wrecked vehicle was found. The driver’s side window was down in the vehicle, he said.

Stiles said authorities have not determined what Rutherford was doing in the area when he was shot.