A man armed with a machete was taken custody on Thursday afternoon near Caswell Park following a Crisis Negotiator and Special Operations Squad response.
At around 11 a.m. on Thursday, February 27, 2025, Knoxville Police Department officers responded to the Cansler Family YMCA on Jessamine Street. YMCA staff reported that a man later identified as 29-year-old Travis Miller had come into the YMCA with a large knife and was asked to leave. YMCA staff had previously asked Miller to leave the premises for the same reason and requested for him to be formally trespassed from the facility.
Officers located Miller a short time later in Caswell Park. As officers went to approach Miller, he pulled out an approximately 12-inch machete and ran into a ravine behind the Ashley Nicole Dream Playground.
Crisis Negotiators and Special Operations Squad personnel responded to the scene. Crisis Negotiators engaged with Miller for around three hours until he was eventually taken into custody by SOS team members at around 3 p.m.
Miller was treated and released from the UT Medical Center and has since been booked at the Roger D. Wilson Detention Center for aggravated assault on a first responder.
