Charges filed after unusual vehicle assault
A Robbins man faces several charges, including felony charges, after allegedly using his vehicle to repeatedly “ram” his ex-wife’s vehicle in Oneida early Sunday morning.
According to an arrest warrant filed by Sgt. John Terry of the Oneida Police Department, Jeffrey L. Buttram, 41, of Mountain View Road in Robbins, is charged with three counts of aggravated assault, three counts of reckless endangerment, two counts of vandalism over $1,000, fleeing to avoid prosecution, failure to stop for lights and siren, reckless driving and violation of the financial responsibility law following the incident, which occurred at the Big John’s Shell station in Oneida shortly after midnight Sunday morning.
According to the affidavit filed by Sgt. Terry, he was parked across the street from Big John’s, in the Marcum’s Parts parking lot, when he noticed a GMC pickup truck, driven by a Pine Knot woman with Buttram’s ex-wife as a passenger, stop at the stop sign at the Alberta Street-Depot Street intersection. As the officer watched, a red Toyota pickup truck, driven by Buttram, allegedly approached the stop sign at a high rate of speed and hit the GMC pickup in the rear.
After Sgt. Terry turned on his patrol car’s blue lights, according to the affidavit, the GMC pickup “pulled around Big John’s Shell station with the [Toyota] pickup in pursuit of it.” As Sgt. Terry attempted to stop Buttram, the affidavit states, Buttram “was continually ramming the GMC in the rear.”
As the pursuit continued, a dispather at the police department informed Sgt. Terry that the occupants of the GMC had called 911 just before Sgt. Terry witnessed the crash at the intersection. According to Terry’s affidavit, Buttram “kept chasing and ramming the other truck through the parking lot around [the] building where people were present in [the] parking lot.”
Terry was able to bring about an end to the assault by using his patrol unit to block Buttram. The affidavit states that Buttram then rammed Sgt. Terry’s car, which caused the truck to come to a stop, at which point Buttram was taken into custody and booked at the Oneida Police Department.
Buttram is to be arraigned on the charges facing him on Wednesday, in General Sessions Court.