A Baxter woman was cited to court on Memorial Day, Monday, May 27, after she left her two kids in the car while she went into a store, police said.

It happened just after 2 p.m. at a store on S. Jefferson Avenue, says a report by Cookeville Police Officer Anthony Nash.

Alinda Elizabeth Conlan, 21, of Partridge Trail, Baxter, was cited in the case, the report says.

Officer Nash said he was dispatched to the store parking lot on a report that “a child was being left unattended in a vehicle.”

“Upon arrival, I observed two small children inside a black Nissan Xterra with the engine running in the parking lot in front of the garden center at Walmart,” the officer’s report continues.

“After waiting approximately 15 minutes, the mother came to the vehicle. I asked Ms. Conlan why she had left the children in the vehicle, and she stated that she only had to run in for a minute and didn’t know it was against the law to leave the children in the vehicle.”

She also told the officer that she had left the car running and the air conditioning on so the children “didn’t get hot,” the report says.

One child is an eight-year-old and one is seven months old, the report says.

Conlan has a court date of July 22.

It is the second such case in recent days, police noted.

As summer approaches, officers here make it a point to check store parking lots for children or animals left in vehicles unattended.

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The 14-year-old boy who was killed while riding his bicycle on the highway in Smithville on Sunday, May 26 was Jacob Davis Billings, according to sources in DeKalb County.

In releasing information about the accident, the Tennessee Highway Patrol refused to identify the accident victim, citing the fact that he is a juvenile.

According to news outlets in DeKalb County, the victim was Jacob Davis Billings, the son of Trey and Heather Billings of Smithville.

He died of a head injury on Sunday evening, May 26, after being hit by a car while riding his bicycle on Casey Cove Road. He was knocked off the bike and then hit by a pickup truck which was traveling behind the car.

The accident is still under investigation.

According to WJLE Radio in Smithville, Billings had just graduated from 8th grade at DeKalb West School, where he played football, a sport he loved. He had made the DeKalb County High School football team, WJLE said.

In addition to his parents, his family includes two sisters, Jessica and Tori Billings.

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A Texas truck driver was robbed in the parking lot of a motel on Sunday night, May 26, police said.

It happened at the Knights Inn motel on Salem Road just after 10 p.m., says a report by Cookeville Police Officer Marc Declaire.

The trucker had just rented a room at the motel and was unloading his gear from the truck at the north side of the building when it happened, he told the officer.

“He said that while he was halfway inside his truck, an unidentified male pushed an object to his back and said, “Give me your money or wallet!”

The victim then handed over his wallet, and the robber snatched the money out of it and took off running, heading north toward Salem Road, the report says. He tossed the wallet away in the parking lot while running.

The victim was able to give only a limited description of the robber. He said the man was wearing dark clothing.

The robber made off with $250.

“This was an aggravated robbery with a firearm (the firearm implied),” the officer noted in the report.

Officers searched the area for the robber, but did not find him. Detectives now have the case.

In another case, a business official working in his office on May 27, a holiday, was apparently a surprise for a burglar who barged in, and the burglar fled upon seeing that someone was there.

It happened at Putnam Properties on N. Washington Avenue, says a report by Officer Ryan Acuff.

“The business owner was working in his office when he heard a loud knocking at the door. He stated that he went to answer the door when a white male had shoved his way through the door.

“The door and the frame were broken. He said the suspect saw him and then turned away and ran.

“The suspect fell down as he fled and left behind a blue flat brimmed TAPOUT baseball cap, which I confiscated,” the officer wrote in the report.

The intruder was described as a white male in his 30’s with shaggy hair, wearing a white shirt, about six feet tall and weighing 180 to 200 pounds, the report says.

He was last seen heading northwest toward Tennessee Tech, the officer said.

“There was nothing stolen from inside the business. Damage to the door and frame was estimated at about $1,000.”

Detectives are investigating.

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A Crossville woman who stole a car at gunpoint early Wednesday morning, May 28, then led police on a high-speed chase and crashed the car, was shot and killed after she allegedly pointed her gun at officers.

According to the TBI and to Deputy District Attorney Gary McKenzie, Angela Smith, 37, of Crossville, was shot and killed by gunfire from a police officer’s weapon after she threatened officers by pointing a Glock pistol at them.

The shooting took place as the officers approached Smith after she had crashed the stolen vehicle into a tree in the Browntown Community near the Cumberland/White County line.

It all happened around 2 a.m. Wednesday after a woman called 911 in Cumberland County and reported that her daughter was on drugs and had jumped out of a car near the Camelot subdivision, Deputy DA McKenzie said.

“And shortly after that call, a resident of that subdivision called 911 and reported seeing a person trying to enter a residence there,” McKenzie said.

Another call then reported that a woman had entered a home in the subdivision and pointed a gun at the homeowner, took his car keys, stole a vehicle, and drove away in it, McKenzie said.

Crossville police officers and Cumberland County deputies soon spotted the vehicle and pursued it “down Highway 70 toward Sparta,” he said.

In the Browntown Community, the fleeing driver, later identified as Angela Smith, crashed the car into a tree, and officers approached the wrecked car, he said.

Reportedly, one officer used a Taser, but it had no effect on Smith, who was brandishing the gun and pointed it at the officers.

“They fired on her then, and she was killed,” McKenzie said.

Some officers are on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation by the TBI and a review by the DA’s office, he said.

Being placed on leave in such cases is routine procedure in law enforcement agencies, McKenzie said.

The woman’s body was sent for an autopsy.