Manhunt is underway for 2nd suspect in Tennessee deputy's fatal shooting
Steven Wiggins is being sought in connection with the fatal shooting of a sheriff's deputy in Tennessee.
One day before allegedly shooting a Dickson County, Tennessee, sheriff's deputy, Steven Joshua Wiggins was charged with aggravated assault for slapping and pulling the hair of a woman he also threatened with a gun, according to a police report.
Erika Castro-Miles, described as an acquaintance of the suspect, told police Wiggins had been "doing meth all night and smoking marijuana" before assaulting her and stealing her car from a motel in Kingston Springs, the police report said. He got away.
A 911 call reporting a suspicious vehicle in the rural Middle Tennessee area on Wednesday morning ended with the slaying of Dickson County Sheriff's Deputy Sgt. Daniel Baker.
The manhunt for Wiggins, 31, continued into Thursday evening along winding, treacherous terrain about 40 miles west of Nashville, authorities said.
Hours earlier, Castro-Miles was charged with one count of first-degree murder in connection with the death, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
Castro-Miles, 38, was seated in the deputy's vehicle with Wiggins and saw the suspect allegedly shot Baker, 32, according to a criminal court affidavit. The woman fled and hid under a house before she was arrested.
Dickson County Sheriff Jeff Bledsoe said he saw video from the shooting scene Thursday that left him "even more heartbroken" about what Baker endured.
"When you're able to witness that from our video, it's more disturbing," he said, without elaborating.
A line of TBI employees stood at attention Thursday afternoon as a procession of sheriff's department vehicles escorted Baker's body from the medical examiner's office in Nashville to a funeral home in downtown Dixon, according to a tweet from the bureau.
Baker, a 10-year law enforcement veteran and former US Marine, had responded to a resident's call about a suspicious vehicle about 7 a.m. Wednesday in Dickson County, said Susan Niland, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee agency.
After a period of not being able to contact the deputy, authorities tracked down Baker's vehicle with GPS in a wooded area about 2 miles from the location of the initial call by an officer from another agency. Baker was found dead in his vehicle.