A multi-county search in East Tennessee has ended with an arrest. Anthony J. Coffey, 36, is in custody after Knoxville police officers located him and took him in following a brief chase on foot, the Knoxville Police Department (KPD) said in its account reported by WVLT. Coffey was wanted on more than 40 charges from multiple area agencies, KPD said — though police have not publicly listed those charges — and he had been identified by the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) as the driver who fled on foot after a stolen pickup truck crashed in Union County on Thursday. The charges and the identification are allegations; Coffey has not been convicted in this case.
Source: WVLT, 'Wanted man arrested after multi-county chase ended in Union County crash,' November 8, 2026
The arrest was a four-agency effort. Officers with KPD's Community Engagement Response Team located Coffey while working with the Knox County Sheriff's Office, the Union County Sheriff's Office and the Maynardville Police Department, KPD said. When officers moved in, Coffey tried to run from them and was caught following a brief pursuit on foot. Police did not specify where the arrest took place, and they have not released a booking photograph or a charge list with the announcement.
How the chase unfolded on Thursday
The timeline, as the Tennessee Highway Patrol gave it, begins in the early hours of Thursday, November 5. At about 2:15 a.m., a 2014 Chevrolet Silverado was reported stolen in Knox County. More than eleven hours later, at about 1:30 p.m., a THP trooper spotted the truck in Claiborne County and attempted a traffic stop. The driver refused to stop, THP said, and led troopers on a pursuit that crossed into Union County.
The chase ended in the woods country off State Route 33. The Silverado crashed off the highway near Lewis Green Hollow, and the driver ran away on foot before troopers could take him into custody, THP said. No one was injured in the pursuit or the crash. THP then identified the driver as Anthony J. Coffey, 36, describing him as approximately 160 pounds with brown hair and facial tattoos, and asked the public for help finding him — 'If you have any information on his whereabouts, please dial *847, that's *THP,' the patrol said. Union County Sheriff Rick Carter said his deputies were tracking the suspect in the woods near where the truck had wrecked.
Knoxville police have not publicly listed the more than 40 charges Coffey was wanted on, have not specified where he was arrested, and have not announced a court date. The Highway Patrol's crash investigation and the stolen-truck case are separate threads from the outstanding warrants.
The search ran from Thursday afternoon until the arrest reported on Saturday, November 7 (U.S. time). WVLT's earlier reporting, updated Saturday evening, still described Coffey as on the run with the search continuing; KPD's arrest account followed. That two-day gap — a named suspect, a public description and a multi-agency search across three counties — is the background against which the arrest was made.
Background: one truck, three counties, two investigations
State Route 33 is the main highway running north from the Knoxville area through Claiborne and Union counties, and the pursuit covered each of the three counties in turn: the truck was taken in Knox County, recognized in Claiborne County and wrecked in Union County. Two official processes now run in parallel. THP is investigating the crash off SR-33 and the flight from its trooper, while the agencies holding Coffey's outstanding warrants — more than 40 charges in total, by KPD's count — proceed on those cases. A warrant count of that size, spread across multiple agencies, usually means cases accumulated in more than one jurisdiction, which is also why the arrest team itself spanned city, county and municipal departments.
For drivers on SR-33 and residents around Lewis Green Hollow, the immediate disruption is over: there is no longer an active search in the woods near the crash site, and THP reported no injuries from Thursday's pursuit or crash. The remaining public-safety piece of the case is administrative — the charge list, once police publish it, will show what the 40-plus warrants actually cover.
What happens next
Coffey is expected to be booked and to appear before a court on the outstanding charges, but as of the arrest announcement police had not published the charges, a bond amount or an arraignment date. THP's investigation of the crash remains open, and additional charges arising from Thursday's pursuit and the stolen truck are possible in such cases, though THP has not announced any. Awaaz Punjab will update this story when Knoxville police release the charge list or a court date is set.