MARYVILLE – Blount County Sheriff James L. Berrong said today that a 41-year-old Maryville man is dead following an altercation Sunday afternoon on Reagan Mill Road.
Johnny Ray Ridge, 41, Reagan Mill Road, Maryville, was pronounced dead at University of Tennessee Medical Center last night.
At around 4:15 p.m. Sunday, Blount County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a residence on Reagan Mill Road to the call of a disturbance. When deputies and emergency services personnel with Rural/Metro Ambulance Service arrived, they found Ridge lying near the end of his driveway on Reagan Mill Road. Witnesses said that Ridge and four individuals had gotten into a physical altercation. A motive for the altercation has not yet been determined.
Ridge was taken by Rural/Metro Ambulance Service to Blount Memorial Hospital, and then flown by Life Star to U.T. Medical Center where he later died.
The four other individuals – two men and two women—left the scene of the incident prior to the arrival of law enforcement. One man was located at a residence on Strawberry Plains Pike in Jefferson County and brought back to Blount County. The other three were found at a home on U.S. Highway 411 South in Maryville. All four are currently being held in the Blount County Detention Facility.
An autopsy on Ridge is scheduled for this afternoon at U.T. Medical Center.
Additional information will be released as it becomes available.
