A man with a threatening note robbed a bank on W. Jackson Street on Monday afternoon, October 3, police said.

It happened just before 2 p.m. at Jackson Bank and Trust, according to a brief report by Cookeville Police Officer Glen Ramsey.

A man walked into the bank and handed a teller a note demanding money, and she complied with his demands, Detective Lt. Carl Sells said.

The man took the undisclosed amount of money and left the bank walking in a northern direction, the detective said.

At one point, someone reported having seen a vehicle that might have been connected to the case, and that was a white GMC Jimmy or Blazer with some type of tape around the back window, a police shift summary report says.

Reportedly, the robber never displayed a weapon, but claimed to have a gun and to be willing to use it.

Cookeville officers rushed to the scene and searched the area for the robber. They brought in a tracking dog, but the search was unsuccessful.

Lt. Sells said the robber was described as a skinny white male in his late 20’s, about 5 ft. 8 inches tall. He was wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans and had long dark hair which was in a ponytail. He was said to be “scuffy” looking.

As of Tuesday, October 5, no arrests had been made.

Anyone who was in the area at the time and saw a person fitting the description is asked to contact the Cookeville Police Department at 931-526-2125 or the FBI at 931-526-8622.

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Two children were injured Monday, October 3 when their father fired a shotgun through an upstairs floor above where they were sitting and playing video games, police said.

Zebariah Douglas, 32, of N. Dixie Avenue, is charged with aggravated assault and aggravated reckless endangerment in the case.

It happened just after noon on Monday, and someone called police reporting “a gunshot inside a residence,” says a report by Cookeville Police Officer Shannon Smith.

Officer Smith and Sgt. Mitch Harrington went to the apartment house and found several people there in the parking lot, including the man who had fired the shotgun inside his apartment, Zeb Douglas.

Douglas was handcuffed, and his wife told the officers that no one was hurt and that there was no one else in the apartment, but Officer Smith happened to notice a small girl “waling into the apartment with a blue towel in her hand,” the report says.

The officer then noticed blood on the back of the child’s shirt and he asked the mother if the child was injured.

Allegedly, the mother told him she thought the marks on the child were just scratches “from the sheet rock that splattered from the ceiling” when her husband had fired the shotgun through the floor of the upstairs room. Officer Smith said the injuries to the little girl’s back were from where pellets had struck her. The couple’s two-year-old son also had marks on his head where pellets had hit him.

The officer called for an ambulance, and the children were taken to the hospital and treated for their injuries, which were not life-threatening.

Officer Smith also called in the Department of Children’s Services, and social worker Betsy Dunn entered the case.

Sgt. Harrington located the shotgun, which was in the back of a vehicle by the time police arrived at the apartment house.

Zebariah Douglas was booked into Putnam County Jail, where his total bond was set at $7,500. Warrants taken by Detective Sgt. Tammy Goolsby allege that Douglas “went upstairs, took a shotgun, fired it through the downstairs of the apartment where his three children were sitting and playing video games.”

The detective also alleges that Douglas admitted to her “that he knew his children were sitting there playing games.”

“The OO buck pellets landed on two of the three children, and these children had to be placed in the hospital, with one of the children having at least 20 pellets that penetrated the skin,” the detective’s warrant says.

Douglas has an October 24 court date.

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A 24-year-old man has been charged in the death of an elderly Crockett County woman.

The Jackson Sun reports that Dustin Cathey faces first-degree murder charges and was being held without bond at Crockett County Jail.

Police say 89-year-old Lila Frances Lilley was shot and killed inside her home in August.