KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — The Knox County Commission met Monday for a work session. There, county commissioners discussed a resolution that would have required several people to testify following a high-profile incident at McAlister's.
The resolution failed by a 9-2 vote. Commissioner Dasha Lundy and Commissioner Courtney Durrett voted in favor, and all others voted against the resolution.
In January, Lundy called for the Knox County Commission to discuss an incident involving Knox County Sheriff's Office deputies and a 15-year-old cashier at McAlister's.
The incident received a lot of attention after the KCSO spokesperson said the 15-year-old cashier refused to serve the deputies.
The mother of the server, who is the mother of Anthony Thompson Jr. who was shot by Knoxville police officers in 2021 in Austin-East High School, called KCSO's comments untrue and said the cashier was nearing the end of her shift and went to ask a co-worker for help. The 15-year-old was later fired from the store over the incident.
The cashier later spoke about the incident during a commission meeting, saying that she lost her first job and "watched my name and character be drug through the mud and destroyed via social media because of Kimberly Glenn, a communications director for Knox County Sheriff's Office who failed to do her job accurately and has yet to face the consequences of her actions."
"Sadly, I'm not surprised. I had hopes that we could stand together on the right side of history ... the commission just voted that a 15-year-old child does not matter," said Lundy. "I don't think this situation is over because this is about justice and we serve a God that's about love and justice. So, we'll see what happens next."
During the January meeting, Lundy said she reached out to Sheriff Tom Spangler to speak at Tuesday's meeting. She said he replied to her email and said he was unavailable. According to Lundy, he also said no representatives from KCSO would attend that meeting.
The resolution would have required several people involved in the incident to speak before the commission. A list of people who would have been called to speak is below.
- Knox County Sheriff Tom Spangler
- Knox County Sheriff's Communications Director, Kimberly Glenn
- Kimberly Glenn's husband
- Knox County Sheriff's Deputy Edlin
- Knox County Sheriff's Deputy Massey
- Knox County Sheriff's Deputy Jenkins
- Southern Rock Restaurants CEO Doug Blackburn
- Area Manager of the McAlister's Deli at 2758 Schaad Rd.
"It means support for Aniya, that no matter what you're going through, you'll have people in your community that are standing with you. What it meant for me is hope that we can come together for our children. If we can't come together for our children, what can we come together for?" said Imani Mfalme-Shu'la, the executive director of Community Defense East Tennessee.
The resolution also would have required electronic communications from them, from between Nov. 21, 2022, through Dec. 19, 2022. They would have also needed to submit social media posts from that timeframe, as well as video and audio footage from the deli on the day of the incident.
"I don't think this is the proper use of County Commission as a legislative body. We are not the oversight for the sheriff, other than our fiduciary responsibility in the budget. That is an independently elected officer, and really ... those are first and foremost governed by the people," said Commissioner Larsen Jay. "The second reason I voted against it is, in the very small amount of discussion that we had in the months leading up to it, I asked if we would be willing to subpoena everybody instead of just one side. What came before us is not a subpoena to find out the whole truth. It was very focused on finding out just one side of the story."
WBIR also reached out to Spangler and Lundy after the January meeting, inviting them to discuss the incident at the news station's studio. Lundy said she would attend, but Spangler did not respond to WBIR's request.
"She's stronger than I am. When I was 15, I couldn't imagine speaking in front of all these people," said Lundy. "I'm grateful for her leadership, and it's sad that she has to be 15 to advocate for herself as she has. She's being built for greater things, and I believe that."