Today is
Tuesday June 09, 2026
MARSHALL – A man wanted in connection with a Marshall shooting has been arrested. The warrant for Demetrius Tranell Williams was issued shortly after the March 7th shooting. It started with a fight near the playground at the Belaire Manor Apartments on West Rusk Street. A man received a non-life threatening gunshot wound. Officers found Williams on East End Boulevard shortly after 2:45 yesterday afternoon. He was arrested without incident. He is now in the Harrison County Jail, charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and and unrelated charges of manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance.
AUSTIN – Unemployment in the state and East Texas held steady in February. The state’s unemployment was placed at 4.0%, the same as it was in February. The nation’s jobless figure is 4.1 %. The state’s economy added 40,500 jobs, the 20th straight month of employment growth. Tyler’s unemployment rate in February was 3.8%, the same figure as January. Longview’s jobless rate for February was the same as January, 4.5%. And the jobless rates in Tyler and Longview are far below where they were a year ago.
PALESTINE – A man wanted in connection with a Palestine shooting has been arrested. Frank Potts, 42, of Palestine, had been wanted for the shooting of Carlos Scott, 34, of Palestine on March 12th. Scott was shot multiple times at a home on San Jacinto Street. He was taken to a Tyler hospital for treatment. Potts was arrested after speeding away from a police officer shortly after midnight on Thursday morning. His pickup was found in a ditch behind a convenience store on East Palestine Avenue. Potts was found hiding in the ditch near the pickup. The pickup had been reported stolen on Monday. Potts was booked into the Anderson County Jail on a charge aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. His bond on that warrant had previously been set at $500.000. He is also charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and a Palestine Municipal Court warrant. Bond has not yet been set on those two charges.
LONGVIEW – The Gregg County Sheriff’s Department is warning that scammers are calling claiming to be with your utility company. The claim your bill is past due by several months and without immediate payment, the service will be disconnected. The sheriff’s department says on their Facebook page, do not give these callers any of your information, after all, they called you about your account and they should know the pertinent information. Their advice to you is, if you have questions about having a past due bill based on a call you receive, you should contact your utility company using a customer service phone numbers on your monthly billing statement or look up the number yourself. They remind you to never use the phone number you are given by the person calling without checking it first.
LONGVIEW – A Longview man will spend a long time in prison for sexually assaulting a teenage boy. A jury on Thursday found Lester Levelle Reedy, 44, guilty of the assault. Then, state district Judge Alfonso Charles sentenced him to life in prison. Reedy had been accused of pulling a 16 year old boy into a dressing room in the Longview Mall and sexually assaulting him in July of 2015. The Longview News Journal reports Reedy is registered in Texas as a high-risk sex offender after a 2004 conviction in Dallas County for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy
TYLER – The former CEO of Pharmaceutical Technologies in Nebraska has been sentenced for making unlawful kickback payments in East Texas. He pleaded guilty to the charges in February of last year. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Thad Heartfield, in Tyler, sentenced Douglas M. Pick, 58, of Omaha, Nebraska, to one year and one day in federal prison. He was also ordered to pay a $50,000 fine and restitution in the amount of $348,195.50.
TYLER – Six Jacksonville men have pleaded guilty following a drug trafficking investigation in East Texas. The plea hearings were held in Tyler before U.S. Magistrate Judge John D. Love on Wednesday and Thursday. The men are Lenard Donnell Atkins, 31, Keyonta Monquan Johnson, 23, Carlos Brejohn Battle, 33, Carlton Deshan Johnson, 28, Jimendrick Clenon Shedd, 37, and David Lee Williams, 32. Under federal statutes, the defendants face sentences ranging from five to 80 years in federal prison. Sentencing hearings will be scheduled after the completion of presentence investigations by the U.S. Probation Office.
NACOGDOCHES COUNTY – A young boy has died in an accidental shooting in the Martinsville area east of Nacogdoches. It happened around 1:45 Wednesday afternoon at a resident on Highway 7. Sheriff Jason Bridges said the 11 year old boy went into the parent’s closet for some unknown reason and found a pistol. The gun somehow went off, hitting the boy in the head. He later died at a Nacogdoches hospital. His name was not released. Sheriff Bridges said the boy who was an avid hunter and very familiar with guns. He had also taken a hunters education class. An autopsy has been ordered.
TYLER – As many as 400 employees have accepted voluntary severance, job re-assignments or have been laid off following the purchase of ETMC Regional Healthcare System by Ardent Health Services of Nashville and the concurrent combining of the ETMC clinical operations with those of UT Health Northeast. The reductions amount to about 5% of the combined workforces and affect employees at UT Health Northeast and employees at the former ETMC. Read the rest of this entry »
LONGVIEW – A Longview woman has been arrested after she was found sleeping in the wrong bed. Arrested shortly before 11:00 Tuesday night was Kelly Latain Chaney, 52, of Longview. She was arrested after police were called by a man who said he found a woman asleep in his bed. She told officers they could take her ID out of her wallet. That’s where they found a plastic bag of methamphetamine. They also found a Xanax bar and a pipe. Chaney is in the Gregg County jail on two charges of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. Her bonds total $8,500.
TYLER – It is now easier for Texas College students to transfer to the University of Texas at Tyler. The two schools have signed a memorandum of understanding. It took place Thursday morning as the officials from the schools signed the document in the Ratliff Library on the U-T Tyler campus. With this partnership, undergraduate students from Texas College will be able to transfer into selected undergraduate programs at UT Tyler. Also, well-qualified students from Texas College will begin limited study in selected master’s programs at UT Tyler as they complete their baccalaureate degree from Texas College.
GILMER – An Upshur County man has been identified as the victim of a two vehicle accident near Gilmer. Pronounced dead at the scene was 29 year old Dexture Domona Carr of Gilmer. His car hit the rear of a tractor trailer rig that had stopped to turn from State Highway 300 on to Flamingo Road, about 4 1/2 miles southeast of Gilmer. The truck’s driver, 39 year old Dewan Tyrel Mosley, of Henderson, was not injured.
AUSTIN – Governor Greg Abbott has named Mark Dunn of Lufkin as chairman of the Texas Workforce Investment Council. Dunn is president of Dunn’s Construction. A state news release says the council assists the Governor and the legislature with strategic planning for and evaluation of the Texas workforce system to promote the development of a well-educated, highly skilled workforce for Texas.
LUFKIN – A three year old girl who was pulled from a Lufkin motel swimming pool has died. She has been identified as Arianna Smith of Lufkin. She died Wednesday afternoon at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. Police say the girl got out of her family’s downstairs room which faced the pool while her father was asleep and her mother was running errands. She was able to enter the fenced pool because the gate latch was broken. After the girl was pulled from the Motel 6 pool on South Timberland Drive, a bystander administered CPR. She was first taken to a Lufkin hospital and then flown to the Houston. The incident remains under investigation, but based on preliminary information, police do not anticipate charges being filed.
MARSHALL – Marshall police are asking the public’s help in finding Jerry Lee Pope, 72. He was last seen leaving his Marshall home last Sunday. Family members say he missed his doctor appointments on Tuesday and they are concerned for his welfare. Pope was last seen wearing blue overalls, a camouflage jacket and Platinum Collision ball cap. He was driving a white 2016 Nissan Frontier pickup truck with Texas plates DV90020. If you know where he can be found, you are asked to call the Marshall Police Department.