Jerome Hadley
Jerome Hadley has been sentenced to 12 years in state prison for shooting a man who had kicked him out of a club last July.
Hadley, 63, pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder.
He was arrested soon after the shooting at The Office club on E. 3rd Street.
Officers with the Chattanooga Police Department responded to reports of a person shot on April 2 at approximately 12:23 a.m. in the area of 1401 E. 3rd St. A gray sedan was seen driving west on E. 3rd Street in the area and police initiated a felony stop on the E. 3rd Street bridge. The driver of the vehicle exited and told police he had been shot. Police saw he had been shot in the arm and the chest, but his injuries were non-life threatening.
Medic 9 arrived and transported the man to the hospital.
As officers were conducting an investigation at the scene, a witness came forward and said they had seen the shooting take place. The witness said her vehicle was parked next to the victim's vehicle in the parking lot of The Office. She said she observed a vehicle traveling on E. 3rd Street pull up to The Office, and a black male got out of the back seat with a gun in each hand. She said the man walked up to the victim's vehicle and started shooting into it while the victim was sitting in the driver's seat.
The witness said she heard several shots and then saw the shooter running away from the scene. She said she recognized the shooter from earlier that night when they were at The Office and he was asked to leave the establishment by the victim. She said the shooter was wearing a black suit and he was approximately 60-62 years old. She said the man went by the name "Ronoie" or "Romie," but although she was not sure of his name, she could pick him out of a photo line up.
Officers were able to recover two shell casings from the parking lot of The Office.
When officers arrived at the hospital around 2 a.m. and were able to speak to the victim, they were told that earlier in the night a man known as "RonnieRome" was in The Office and appeared to be intoxicated. The victim said he asked the man to leave and they got into an argument, so the victim called the police. However, the man left before police arrived.
The victim said as he was leaving The Office around 12:20 a.m. and got into his silver Lexus sedan, he heard the woman in the vehicle next to him honking her horn and yelling to get his attention. He said he looked up and saw the shooter standing next to the driver's side of his vehicle, pointing a gun at him, and he saw the flashes from the gun when he fired the weapon at him. He said he reversed his car quickly in order to get out of the area, but the shooter kept firing at him as he drove away. He said the shooter was the same man he had been in an argument with earlier, and was the man he knows as "RonnieRome." He said he had a through and through gunshot wound on his elbow as well as a gunshot wound to his chest, and the bullet was still in his body.
The victim and the witness both positively identified Hadley as the shooter when detectives presented them with separate photo line ups.
Detectives obtained warrants for the arrest of Hadley for attempted criminal homicide, reckless endangerment, unlawful possession of a firearm, vandalism and possessing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony.