Meadowview, Virginia

From the Bristol Herald-Courier of December 5, 2005

Police say family feud leads to arrest

A man shot his son in the wrist Saturday after the son attacked him with a knife during a fight, police said.
"We have an old saying, ‘You don’t bring a knife to a gunfight,’ " Washington County Sheriff Fred Newman said.

John Jefferson Tuggle, 22, faces an attempted first-degree murder charge after police said he threatened to kill his father, 44-year-old Jefferson Lem Tuggle, and attacked him at the home they share at 32364 Santa Cruz Drive.

Police don’t plan to file any charges against the father, who apparently acted in self-defense, the sheriff said.

The son was talking on the telephone in the living room, where both his parents were at the time. When he hung up, authorities said he began cursing his father and threatened to kill him.

Police weren’t sure who the son had been talking to on the phone or whether the call prompted the fight.

The son appeared to have been drinking, said sheriff’s Detective James Blevins.

He went upstairs and got a knife and ax while his father got a .357 Magnum pistol out of his bedroom nearby and started to load it, police said.

The son then propped the ax against the staircase, came downstairs and lunged with the knife at his father, who fired two shots, according to police.

The second shot struck the son in the right forearm just above the hand, Blevins said.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

"After the first shot was fired, he dropped the knife, and the father got the knife from the floor and threw it behind the couch," the detective said. "Even after all that, the son picked up a television off the floor, threw it at the father and hit him with it."

The son left the house and was arrested a short time later, Blevins said. The father was unhurt.

John Tuggle remained in jail Sunday night without bond. He has an arraignment hearing set for Dec. 20.