Members of the House Oversight Committee were silent Friday when asked whether they were investigating the death of a Henderson man at the hands of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The Tennessee Star reached out to five members of the House Oversight Committee, asking whether they had heard about the killing of Theodore Deschler and if they planned to investigate the circumstances of Deschler’s death at the hands of the FBI.
None returned comment requests.
Theodore Deschler was shot and killed on August 16 by the FBI during an early-morning raid on the Henderson home that he shared with his mother.
Aside from a statement acknowledging the shooting and an internal investigation, the FBI has not provided details about why the raid occurred or the events leading up to Theodore Deschler’s death.
“The FBI is reviewing an agent-involved shooting which occurred today at approximately 6:40 am while FBI SWAT was conducting an arrest operation in Henderson, TN,” said a statement from the federal law enforcement agency. “The subject is deceased. The FBI takes all shooting incidents involving our agents or task force members seriously. In accordance with FBI policy, the shooting incident is under review by the FBI’s Inspection Division. As this is an ongoing matter, we have no further details to provide.”
Theodore Deshler’s brother, Russell Deschler, said that Theodore Deschler was a 100 percent disabled combat veteran and that he was unarmed at the time of the killing.
Russell Deschler said he believes the FBI shot blindly through windows it broke out of a garage door, firing into Theodore Deschler’s kitchen.
“He didn’t have a weapon on him,” Russell said in an interview with DailyMail. He was just trying to get out of the house because it was filled with tear gas.”
“The height of the door and where Teddy was standing when they shot him and killed him, you couldn’t see if he was armed or not,” he continued. “And you know he wasn’t, because if you look at the door you could see where his hands were full of blood and went down the door.”
State Senator Page Walley (R-Savannah) is investigating the incident.
“I’ve been making some inquiries since I learned of it,” he told The Star on Tuesday. “I’ve been on the phone with the Chester County Sheriff’s Department, and the Henderson police. “Neither the sheriff’s department or the Henderson Police Department were informed by the FBI until after the event.”
“It’s a concern, and I’m doing what I can to glean information,” he said. “I’m going to keep making calls.”
Theodore Deschler did have a violent criminal history, including charges of Aggravated Assault and Assault With A Deadly Weapon Without Intent To Kill.
He was arrested in Selmer in May for an alleged stabbing in a gas station parking lot, though it remains unclear why he was not in jail stemming from that incident at the time of his death.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
