A Kingsport man faces multiple charges after allegedly threatening to harm a man, woman and child with a chainsaw and a knife.
According to a Sullivan County Sheriff's Office report, Joshua Lofty, 34, has been arrested and charged with three counts of aggravated assault, two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, evading arrest and aggravated burglary in connection with an incident alleged to have occurred at a home on Orebank Road at approximately 12:30 a.m. Thursday. Lofty is identified as a resident of a detached garage apartment at the same location.
The report states police responded to a report that a man had a chainsaw and was making threats to kill everyone. Upon arrival, deputies found Lofty with what appeared to be a knife, confronting a man behind the residence. The reporting officer states he drew his service weapon and ordered Lofty to get on the ground, and Lofty refused. He allegedly told the two responding officers, "You all are going to have to shoot me."
Lofty then reportedly took off his shirt and fled the scene with the item in his hand. The officers did not pursue him. Instead, they advised the alleged female victim to get in a car "if she was OK" and leave with the child. A K-9 unit called in from the Bristol Tennessee Police Department was unable to locate Lofty in the area. In a press release issued Friday afternoon, SCSO spokeswoman Leslie Earhart advised Lofty was located and arrested at the corner of Orebank Road and Highway 11-W at approximately 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
A male victim at the scene told police he went to the woman's home when a young child knocked on his front door and told him, "Josh was attacking Nana." The man told police he went into the woman's home and saw Lofty enter the kitchen with a knife in his hand. He said Lofty "continued" opening and closing the knife, and had cuts on his arm "where he believed he cut himself." He said he told Lofty to leave, and that's when Lofty allegedly went out the back door, grabbed a chainsaw and started it up and began making threats to hurt them all.
At that point, the man said he told the woman to take the child and leave. Lofty then reportedly threw the chainsaw down and moved toward the woman, and the man stepped between them.
The woman told police she had been arguing with Lofty prior to the alleged incident, and that she had locked him out of her residence after he returned to his garage apartment. She said he returned and began beating on the doors, demanding she return a phone she had asked the child to retrieve from his apartment earlier that day. She reported she was afraid to let him in, for fear of what he might do to her. At one point she told him she would give him the phone back if he would go away.
That's when Lofty allegedly broke in the back door, shoved her against a wall, and began "cussing" her. He allegedly went to her bedroom and took money from her purse. The woman told police she tried unsuccessfully to take the child and flee to the neighbor's at one point. She said she returned to her residence because Lofty allegedly chased her and told her that, "if she didn't get back over there he would kill her."
Back at the residence, the woman alleged Lofty assaulted her in the kitchen, and when she tried to get to a phone, he allegedly broke her cell phone and then ripped her home phone off the wall. After tearing the phone off the wall, she alleged Lofty got a knife out of his pocket and told her, "you are done" while running the knife up and down his arm.
The woman told police she asked Lofty if she could take the child and leave, and he allegedly told her, "No, you are not going anywhere." He reportedly continued to stop the woman from leaving, allegedly grabbing her and shoving her to the ground.
Lofty reportedly still had the knife out when the woman's neighbor walked into her home. She alleged Lofty had gone outside and started up the chainsaw when she got her purse and keys and took the child to her car.