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Woman opens fire after divorce meeting
She shoots estranged husband four times
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A tense divorce meeting at an attorney’s office in downtown Manchester ended in gunfire as the woman opened fire and shot her estranged husband four times.
Dr. Harry Bartee, 47, was airlifted to Erlanger Medical Center for treatment of his injuries, while his wife, Brenda Bartee was arrested. She is being held at Coffee County Jail on $1 million bond.
The incident happened around 1 p.m. Wednesday after a contentious divorce meeting. It occurred in front of the law office of Rogers, Duncan and North.
According to authorities, Brenda Bartee fired seven shots with a 40-caliber pistol and hit Harry Bartee at least four times after mediation for divorce proceedings.
Deputies from the Bedford County Sheriff’s Department happened to be in the area at the time of the shooting and converged on the scene to take Brenda Bartee into custody and wait for local authorities.
Harry Bartee was on the ground and was taken by ambulance to Medical Center of Manchester where he was flown by helicopter to Erlanger Medical Center. Dr. Bartee, who now lives out of state, once practiced in Coffee County.
Brenda Bartee has been charged with attempted first-degree murder.
“It appears to have been a serious domestic issue,” Manchester Police Department assistant chief Adam Floied told the Manchester Times. “They had been meeting with attorneys at about a divorce. The mediation broke down and Mrs. Bartee left the office and went outside and got the pistol. When the man left the law office, the woman fired seven shots with four of them striking him.”

Local law enforcement on the lookout for distracted driving
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April is National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Distracted Driving Awareness Month and McMinnville Police Department (MPD) is on the roads to educate motorists about appropriate hands-free driving.

The amplified focus of cracking down on distracted driving is a nationwide initiative, with many states taking part. MPD Officer Mark Mara indicated the local department is increasing patrols, funded by overtime grants, to enforce and educate about Tennessee’s Hands Free Law.

“We’re trying to get people to change their habits,” Mara said. “There’s a lot of people that are distracted while driving, whether its their cell phones or not. When driving, there are already so many distractions, so having electronics in your hands while you’re driving down the road is dangerous. We need to focus on getting where we need to go and getting there safely.”

According to its records, NHTSA estimates 3,308 lives were lost in crashes involving distracted drivers in 2022 and 8% of all fatal crashes could be attributed to the same. To illustrate the point on a larger scale, it approximates over 32,000 people have died and nearly 290,000 were left injured from crashes attributed to distracted motorists between 2013 and 2022.

Violation of the Tennessee Hands Free Law is a Class C misdemeanor and traffic citations based on the violation are considered moving traffic violations. A first-time offense is typically $50 with third-time offenses and violations resulting in a crash rising to $100; citations received in a work zone while workers or present or in a marked school zone while flashes are in operation carry a penalty of $200. Three points are also added to a motorist’s driving record for each violation with 12 points leading to license suspension.

While the law specifically mentions hands in its name, it is similarly illegal to prop the phone up with any other part of their body.

“We’re going to be stopping vehicles whose operators are distracted by using their cell phones or other electronic devices,” Mara said. “It is against the law for a motorist to be holding their electronic device or having it on their body, so if you’re holding it to your ear or with your shoulder, it’s against the law all the same.”

When using GPS technology, Mara recommends investing in windshield-, vent- or dash-mounted mobile device holder to support the phone while using it for those purposes so your hands can remain on the wheel without compromising your ability to navigate to a destination.

“I understand that your cell phones are a lifeline and we get that — we use them ourselves for GPS. If you have an important phone call that’s coming in and you really need to focus on talking to that person, just pull over to the side of the road and turn on your emergency lights,” Mara said. “When you’re on a phone call, you’re not paying attention to all of the things you need to. You’re going to be concentrating on that conversation and you’re going to find yourself drifting in your lane, going through a stop sign or not stopping properly before a red light.”

Mara additionally recommended drivers sync their phones to their vehicles in models with Bluetooth capabilities and to use phone mounts that do not obstruct vision of the roadways through the windshield.

“The greatest danger of distracted driving is ending up in a crash that was absolutely avoidable, which might hurt yourself or someone else,” Mara said. “You’ve got a lot in front of you when you’re driving and a vehicle is a piece of machinery. We want all motorists to be driving safely on the roads and getting to their destinations without misadventure.”

Warnings and citations will be rendered at officers’ discretion during the increased patrols.