A funeral procession found itself in the middle of the tragic July 16 shooting on Amnicola Highway.
And the Chattanooga Police officer who was leading the procession on his motorcycle wound up being shot in the leg.
Dennis Pedigo was early on the scene at the Naval and Marine Operations Center as he had just led the procession for Shirley Zarzour Fuller from St. Jude Church in Hixson along a route that went by the center.
Shannon Fuller, who was in the first car behind the hearse, said she saw Officer Pedigo move on ahead and pull to the side.
Ms. Fuller, a longtime employee at Zarzours Restaurant that was owned by Shirley Fuller, said, "There were other officers there getting into their SWAT gear. They were crouched behind police cars along the highway."
Mary Smith, the cook for many years at Zarzours, was in the last car in the procession.
She said, "I heard something that sounded like a jackhammer. I thought somebody was beating on the back of my car."
Then she said she realized it was gunfire coming from the nearby military center.
She said, "After that, I heard about 30 rounds going off."
Ms. Smith said she saw numerous officers with their guns drawn and saw the flash of gunfire.
She said, "The whole thing was surreal. It was like we were in a movie."
She added, "A bunch of police cars were flying past us to the scene. We almost got hit several times."
Shannon Fuller said, "When we just got there, it was so early that no one was stopping traffic. The shooting was still going on. After that, an officer started waving traffic to turn around."
The Fuller funeral procession then made a slow turn to go another direction to the National Cemetery.
The next week two of those killed at the scene would also be buried at the National Cemetery.