Whitfield Co. Deputy Under Investigation

Описание: by Karen Zatkulak  A Whitfield County Sheriffs deputy is on paid administrative leave after he pawned several department issued weapons.  Sheriff Scott Chitwood confirms that Chris Hammontree is under internal investigative.  We're told he has been with the Sheriffs Office for fourteen years as a patrolman.  Sheriff Chitwood says because of his veteran status, he had the two long guns issued to him.  Last week, the Sheriff says they recognized his name on their database of pawn shop transactions. Those transactions showed that Hammontree had pawns the weapons at two local pawn shops, American Pawn and Jack's Pawn Shop.Bobby Dixon owns American Pawn and says he had no idea that Hammontree was a deputy with the Whitfield County Sheriff's Office.  He says he also had no idea the rifle he came in to pawn, was owned by the Whitfield County Sheriff's Office.  "Kind of a little bit shocked, you would think he would know the regulations."Those regulations include a system where all pawn shops' transactions are sent through a database, directly to the Sheriff's Office.  So it wasn't long before investigators there noticed the name of their fellow officer.  Sheriff Scott Chitwood says, "We received a report and recognized one of the deputy's names and started checking on it, and understood that it was 2 department issued weapons."The other weapon was a shotgun that investigators say he pawned just down the street.  Now many wonder why he did it.  Sheriff Chitwood says, "I haven't spoken with him, our investigators are following up so his reasoning, justification, I don't know at this time."He has not been charged in the case, and the Sheriff says their department is still looking into the incident.