Suspect In Knoxville Police Officer’s Shooting Set To Appear In Court

Ronnie Lucas Wilson, who is accused of shooting Knoxville Police Officer Jay Williams on Thursday evening was arrested at an abandoned residence in Blount County early Saturday Morning.(Photo: Blount County Sheriff’s Office)

A suspect is on the run after shooting a Knoxville Police Department officer on Washington Pike in front of a Northeast Knoxville shopping center.

The man accused of shooting a Knoxville Police Department officer during a traffic stop earlier this month could make his first appearance in court today on charges of attempted first-degree murder.

Ronnie Lucas Wilson, 31, has a preliminary hearing set in Knox County General Sessions Court. Prosecutors say Wilson, a repeat felon and member of the Aryan Nations white supremacist gang, opened fire on KPD Officer Jay Williams when Williams pulled Wilson’s car over for speeding on Washington Pike near the Target store in Northeast Knoxville the night of Jan. 11.

Williams, taken by surprise, never got off a shot, police said. He continues to recover from a gunshot wound to his shoulder.

Officers around East Tennessee spent the next day on a manhunt for Wilson before finally capturing him as he jumped out the window of a burning abandoned house on Calderwood Highway in Blount County the morning of Jan. 13.

Wilson served three years in prison for a 2011 aggravated burglary conviction after he broke into the home of an elderly couple in North Knox County where he’d done some handyman jobs.

A Knox County probation officer noted at the time he’d shown himself unfit for “community probation of any type.” He apparently joined the gang while in prison.

Such white supremacist gangs originated in the 1960s and spread across the country as a backlash against integration of inmates, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups.

The gangs rely on “white power” and neo-Nazi rhetoric as recruiting tools and preach a brand of Christianity that condemns blacks, Jews and other minorities as offspring of Satan. Members often communicate through code words and phrases, hand signs and symbols in graffiti and tattoos.

Wilson was on probation the night of Williams’ shooting for an aggravated assault conviction in Claiborne County, where he’d shot a man during a drug deal gone bad. He’d been declared an absconder after failing to report to his probation officer.