| Sources |
- [S25] Smith Mortuary Company, www.smithmortuary.com, 18 Aug 2014.
Howard Ray Ogle obituary
- [S25] Smith Mortuary Company, www.smithmortuary.com, 25 Aug 2016.
July 9, 1984 - August 25, 2016
Officer Kenneth Ray Moats, age 32 of Maryville was killed in the line of duty Thursday, August 25, 2016. Kenny was a 2002 graduate of Heritage High School and graduated from Walters State Police Academy in December 2005. Officer Moats has been with the City of Maryville Police Department since February 2007. In June of 2010, Kenny was assigned to traffic as a motor officer. He was recognized as a Readers’ Choice Police Officer by the readers of The Daily Times in 2011. Since January 2016, Officer Moats has served as President of the Fraternal Order of Police – Bud Allison Memorial Lodge #9. In May of 2016, he was assigned to the Fifth Judicial Task Force as a drug enforcement agent. Officer Moats was a fine outstanding officer and his career with the City of Maryville Police Department was stellar. Kenny was preceded in death by his grandfather, Howard Ray Ogle. Survivors include his wife, Britteni Nikole Moats; sons, Kamron Moats and Tyson Moats; daughter, Mackenzie Burger; father and step-mother, Kenneth and Kathleen Moats; mother and step-father, Lisa R. and Donald Burns; grandmother, Alma Ogle; brother, Kristian Moats; sister, Katelyn Moats; step-sisters, Donna Bragg and Brittany Watson; brother-in-law, Joey Whitehead; aunts, Teresa Headrick, Cathy Barbra, and Laura Campbell; Michelle Moats Perez and many other extended family members including his brothers and sisters in blue. Family will receive friends from 4:00 until 7:00 Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at Sevier Heights Baptist Church, 3232 Alcoa Hwy, Knoxville, TN 37920. Funeral service will follow at 7:00 p.m. at the church. On Wednesday, August 31, 2016 a procession beginning at Smith Funeral & Cremation Service will depart at 10:15 a.m. and circle the Maryville Municipal Building before traveling to the Keeble’s Chapel Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery. The public is invited and will be able to start lining up at 9:00 a.m. at the funeral home. The public procession will end at Melrose Station Road. A private graveside service will be held at 11:00 a.m. at Keeble’s Chapel Missionary Baptist Church. The graveside service will be open only to members of the family and officers from Maryville Police Department, Blount County Sheriff’s Office, and Alcoa Police Department The guest book will be available from 8:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. Monday and on Tuesday from 8:00 a.m. 12:00 noon at Smith Funeral & Cremation Service, Maryville, 983-1000, www.smithlifeandlegacy.com.
- [S4] Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee), 26 Aug 2016.
Sheriff: Maryville officer’s shooting was ‘ambush’
Blount County Sheriff discusses fatal shooting of Officer Kenny Moats
Maryville police officer Kenny Moats (CITY OF MARYVILLE)
Flowers are placed outside the Maryville police station on Friday, Aug. 26, 2016, a day after Maryville officer Kenny Moats was shot and killed while responding to a domestic violence call. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL)
Brian Keith Stalans (BLOUNT COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE)
A procession of officers from multiple departments leaves the Regional Forensic Center headed to Maryville with fallen Maryville police officer Kenny Moats on Friday, Aug. 26, 2016. Kenny Moats, 32, was pronounced dead at the University of Tennessee Medical Center after he was shot while answering a domestic violence call. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)
Records: Suspect in Blount officer's death threatened family
Community mourns fallen Tennessee officer, vigil at 8 p.m.
Maryville police officer killed in shooting; suspect in custody
PHOTOS : Community mourns officer killed in line of duty
865-342-6434
MARYVILLE — The man accused of killing a police officer had planned to 'ambush' officers and blamed police for ruining his life, authorities said Friday.
"It was our speculation that it was definitely an ambush that had been set up," Blount County Sheriff James Berrong said at a news conference.
Brian Keith Stalans, 44, faces charges that include criminal homicide and could range up to capital murder in the death of Maryville Police Department Officer Kenny Moats, 32. He remained in jail Friday night with bond set at $1.5 million and was set to appear Monday afternoon in Blount County General Sessions Court.
Authorities said Stalans shot Moats in the neck Thursday when Moats and a Blount County Sheriff's Office deputy went to Stalan's home on Alcoa Trail near Kerrway Lane where Stalans was arguing with his father.
The bullet struck Moats just above his bullet-resistant vest, the sheriff said. He died at the University of Tennessee Medical Center.
Moats' partner and another deputy involved in the shoot-out remain on administrative leave with pay. Authorities haven't given their names.
The sheriff said officers executing a search warrant at Stalans' home found in the basement a letter "blaming the Blount County Sheriff's Office and family members for his misfortunes," as well as a "makeshift barricade that would protect him while he fired and also a place to rest his arm while he fired."
Berrong wouldn't give further details about the letter.
Moats, a nine-year veteran of the Maryville Police Department, and his partner were answering the second domestic violence call of the day at Stalans' address. Deputies responded to the first call at the home where Stalans lived with his father around 10:45 a.m.
"The father did not want to place charges against his son … and we had no reason we could take him into custody," the sheriff said.
Stalans had no record of any criminal charges in Blount County, Berrong said, although the sheriff said he had "a long history of violent tendencies" and had an active order of protection against him on file in Sullivan County, where he previously lived, along with a record of an incident there involving a weapon.
Records show Blount County deputies responded to Stalans' home on March 23 for an earlier domestic argument but made no arrest.
Deputies had no probable cause to take Stalans into custody either time, the sheriff said.
"Each incident is judged on its own merits," he said. "While we'd like to turn back the clock and erase this, officers have to make decisions within the guidelines of the law, and they did that."
Stalans' girlfriend and father told police Stalans fired a round of bullets into the girlfriend's Alcoa home around 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Berrong said the girlfriend didn't realize Stalans had fired into the home, where she lived with a child younger than 5. But because Stalans was "agitated," the sheriff said, the girlfriend went from her home to the nearby Alcoa Police Department and then called Stalans' father to tell him Stalans "was coming to harm him."
Berrong said Stalans' father called E-911 around 4 p.m. and told a dispatcher that Stalans had a weapon. Dispatchers relayed that warning to Moats and his partner, assigned to the 5th Judicial District Drug Task Force, who were nearby and volunteered to answer the call, he said. Another unit had initially been dispatched.
The officers arrived, parked at another home about 70 yards behind Stalans' house and moved the father to safety, then took cover behind their vehicle waiting for help to arrive while watching the house. Stalans went to the basement garage and opened fire on the officers with five shots from his .45-caliber pistol, the sheriff said. One of those shots struck Moats in the neck, he said.
Moats' partner returned fire twice, the sheriff said, and another deputy arrived and fired five shots. Stalans ultimately gave himself up.
Berrong said Stalans' father had taken his guns and "secured them in the attic," but after the morning domestic call, Stalans broke into the attic, "retrieved" the pistol, cut the lock off and "went to a local business and bought ammunition." He said police found no other weapon in the garage.
A neighbor heard the gun battle from a few houses away.
"I heard 'Boom, boom, boom,' then a five-second silence, 'Boom, boom, boom,' and then another 'Boom, boom'— loud, loud," Wanda Malone said.
Malone, who lives two doors down from Stalans' home, went outside to her neighbor's house, next door to the shooting scene, where she saw the deputies struggling to save Moats.
"The police hollered, "Stay back." ... We could see that policeman lying in that ditch," Malone said. "They were working over him and saying, 'Kenny, don't leave us. Kenny, don't leave us.' "
Neighbors said Stalans had been firing his guns all day.
"He was walking around, shooting in the ground or in the air or in the bushes," said Malone's grandson, Austin. "Then he'd turn around and shoot into the trees."
He said Stalans didn't seem agitated or upset at the time.
"No expression of anger or nothing," he said.
Stalans had been flagged by police as dangerous, based on the orders of protection in Sullivan County, the sheriff said. Details from the orders — one obtained by his ex-wife and another by his daughter — describe a man with potential mental illness, suicidal thoughts and a history of physical abuse toward his family. Rebecca Stalans, mother of his three daughters, also said he had many guns.
In a 2013 petition for an order of protection, she said the two had been married 17 years.
"Brian has had a history of psychological issues and has many guns and swords," she wrote. "I am concerned for my daughters, my life and his life."
Stalans' LinkedIn profile lists him as an Eagle Scout who served in the Air Force from 1990-1994, with an honorable discharge. He worked as a truck driver from 2008-2010, when he was injured in a crash, and later worked as a tech support agent.
Posts on travelerschapel.com, a ministry to truckers and other long-distance travelers, indicate Stalans blamed the crash for mental problems that followed, including short-term memory loss, night terrors and flashbacks.
Knoxville police cruisers escorted the ambulance carrying Moats on the drive to the hospital Thursday afternoon along Alcoa Highway. Dozens of cruisers escorted his body back to Maryville on Friday, carried in a white hearse surrounded by motorcycles.
Officers lined Broadway Avenue in silence as the motorcade passed, red and blue lights flashing. Some embraced. Some wept.
Moats, a father of three, joined the police department in February 2007 and had served as a drug enforcement agent since May. He was a "stellar" officer and was named as a Readers' Choice Police Officer by the Maryville Daily Times newspaper in 2011, according to Maryville Police Chief Tony Crisp.
Since January, Moats also had served as president of the local Fraternal Order of Police Bud Allison Memorial Lodge No. 9.
"We are humbled by the outpouring of love and support from the community and beyond," Crisp said in a statement. "We will forever be grateful for the care our community has shown the family of Officer Moats and the law enforcement community.
"We know this tragedy will bring our community closer together, and that will be a lasting legacy of Officer Moats. We just ask that our community continue to pray for the family of Officer Moats and for the men and women in uniform as we go through this trying time."
The last time a Maryville police officer was killed on duty was on Feb. 21, 1981, when John Michael Callahan II was struck by a drunk driver while riding his patrol motorcycle on Merritt Road. Moats' death made him the 76th officer nationwide to fall in the line of duty so far this year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
- [S147] Find a Grave, (Memorial: 168933008).
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
Groom's Name Bride's First Name Bride's Maiden Name County Date of Marriage File #
MOATS KENNETH L LISA O [NOT GIVEN] BLOUNT 03-24-1984 06792
- [S131] Divorce Record.
Husband's Name Wife's First Name Wife's Maiden Name County Court Date of Divorce File #
MOATS KENNETH L LISA [NOT GIVEN] BLOUNT GENERAL SESSIONS 05-14-1992 09618
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
Groom's Name Bride's First Name Bride's Maiden Name County Date of Marriage File #
MOATS KENNETH R BRITTENI N WALLACE BLOUNT 09-20-2014 38951
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