Chattanooga: Video reveals details about gambling raid shooting

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

photo Chief Bobby Dodd, third from left, speaks with police officers near the scene of an officer-involved shooting just after midnight Friday morning, April 13, 2012. Police raided an illegal gambling operation just off Gunbarrel Road around midnight. Most of the participants were given citations, but one was wounded after producing a weapon.

A video of a man shot and wounded by Chattanooga police during a gambling raid Thursday night shows that he had a gun and pointed it at police.

Chattanooga Police Chief Bobby Dodd showed the video, taken from a camera at the ATC Healthcare office on Gunbarrel Road, to members of the media this afternoon. The video shows Clifford Billups, 32, pointing a .40-caliber Glock at officers before he was shot by an officer. In the video, Billups feeds a bullet into the gun's firing chamber - known as racking - before he points it at the police.

Billups was treated at Erlanger hospital and taken to the Hamilton County Jail. He has been charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and felony reckless endangerment, police said.

Investigator John Patterson with the Crime Suppression Unit is the officer involved in the shooting. Under department policy, Patterson is on seven days' leave pending an investigation.

The video also shows that Billups was actively playing poker at a table inside the business. The video shows that food served at the game was not from Herman's, a Brainerd Road restaurant that Billups owns.

Seventeen people were arrested during the raid at ATC Healthcare, in Suite 103 at 1618 Gunbarrel Road.

Four men fled, including Billups, who was armed with two handguns, Dodd said. Four suspects were arrested on gambling and drug-related charges, while 13 were cited for illegal gambling, a misdemeanor.

Dodd has said the group played poker games with $1,000 buy-ins, and the group exchanged up to $100,000 a night.

Read more in tomorrow's Times Free Press.