Two arrested in shooting death of man

photo The entrance sign is seen Sunday afternoon at the Lakeside Youth Sports Complex off Highway 58, where a man was fatally shot Saturday night.

The Saturday night fatal shooting on Swan Road off Highway 58 left many area residents wondering but not surprised.

Chattanooga police were called at 10:04 p.m. Saturday and found a black man dead at the scene. The victim was identified Sunday as 37-year-old Timothy Bumpass.

Police arrested two people Sunday night, Kristopher Lebron Bell, 20, and Christopher Jennings, 19. Bell and Jennings have been charged with felony murder, especially aggravated robbery and criminal conspiracy in the case, police said.

Neighbors on Sunday reported seeing what they believed to be drug-related and other illegal activities going on behind the Lakeside Youth Sports Complex, a cluster of baseball fields and tennis courts and the site of the homicide.

The sports complex off Highway 58 shares the street with small suburban houses. Neighbors on Sunday spoke cautiously and said they didn't want to give their names.

"That area has been extremely busy over the last few months. I think they're back there gambling," said one woman who lives near the park.

"People walk back there and they're always in packs," she said. "We don't even walk down there any more. That's the only area in the neighborhood that's been attracting that kind of traffic, though."

The woman remembers hearing the gunshots just before 10 p.m.

"It was like three in a row and my dogs were barking. I came out about an hour later and there were police cars in the parking lot," she said.

Another woman, who also declined to give her name, reported seeing the police search the area for the suspects.

"They was up here searching with the dogs," she said. "You're certainly aware of your surroundings in this neighborhood, but I've been up here all my life and nothing like that's ever happened here."

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