The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • B6

6B SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2010 LOCAL STATE NEWS THE TENNESSEAN Officer kills knife-wielding rape suspect her on two occasions in June and July. The child's mother also said Beard held a knife to her neck and warned her not to tell authorities. Saturday morning, a family member at the Elkins Avenue home told Weaver that Beard every day, most of the time without incident," he said. "It's clear that Beard did not want to go back to jail. "He knew the drill with his prior experience, and, ultimately, he wound up victimizing two police officers." Weaver is a 17-year veteran with the police department.

Bacon has been with the department for five years. Reach Stephanie Toone at stooneiatennessean.com. By Stephanie Toone THE TENNESSEAN A Metro police officer shot and killed a rape suspect who lunged at him with a knife during an arrest attempt Saturday morning. The officer and a second policeman on the scene have been placed on administrative leave. Officer Eric Bacon shot Randall Beard, a convicted robber, after Beard lunged at Bacon and Officer Tim Weaver with a knife when the officers attempted to arrest him, said Metro police spokesman Don Aaron.

Weaver arrived at a home at 3737 Elkins Ave. around 9 a.m. with warrants for Beard's arrest on rape, aggravated statutory rape and domestic assault charges, Aaron said. On Thursday, the warrants were issued after a 14-year-old relative of Beard told police he had sex with radioed Bacon tance for assis-with the search, and he within arrived minutes. Both officers searched in an upstairs bedroom for Beard, seeing a lump in a mattress that led them to believe someone was hiding the mattress and gs, Aaron said.

between box sprin officer Bacon and Weaver repeatedly ordered Beard to surrender. They lifted the mattress, and Bacon emerged clutching a "large, butcher-type knife," Aaron said. Bacon fired one shot at the suspect, who died at the scene. Beard's arrest history reflects 35 offenses between 1995 and July 2010, Aaron said. He was convicted of robbery in May 2005.

"Metro police officers serve outstanding warrants Randall Beard was convicted of robbery in 2005. Va. site yields fossils of Ice Age animals "There's big potential we'll also find early human stuff with these big animals. The end of the Ice Age was really a dynamic time." BLAINE SCHUBERT, paleontologist Brian Compton holds a partial mastodon jaw. The fossil from the Pleistocene fossil deposit in Saltville, is being cleaned and preserved at the Gray Fossil Site and Museum, ron Campbell johnson city press was not there, but he was given permission to search the residence.

The Joe BIDDLE 7 The Saltville site is around 16,000 years old. A large lake formed in the area about that time, and many animals got stuck in the mud and drowned. "So, we're studying this site, trying to determine what kind of animals were here," Schubert said. Among the specimens found in Saltville are mammoths, mastodons, musk-ox, giant short-faced bears and ground sloths. In addition, some animals and plants, such as caribou, spruce and fir, have been found that now live much farther north.

Little research done The town of Saltville manages the site and allows ETSU exclusive rights to excavate specimens and curate them at Gray. "The site was originally discovered in the 1700s," Schubert said. "Thomas Jefferson knew about it. He wrote about it in his report on Virginia." Even thought the site has been known about for more than 200 years and many fossils have been recovered from the area, not much research has been done. Schubert hopes to change that.

Particularly interesting finds from this summer's excursion were mastodon bones that have "really extreme" gnawing or scavenging marks. "And by extreme, I mean a really big scavenger was eating on these bones," Schubert said. By Rex Barber JOHNSON CITY PRESS JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. You might expect to find fossils in a town called Saltville, but researchers have only recently been cataloging the finds in the southwest Virginia town. Blaine Schubert, a paleontologist at East Tennessee State University and chairman of the Don Sundquist Center of Excellence in Paleontology at the Gray Fossil Site and Museum, is in charge of excavating fossilized specimens at the late-Ice Age site.

His annual trip this summer yielded a caribou antler and tooth and a mastodon jaw and tooth. These fossils will be kept at Gray. "Saltville itself is in a valley," Schubert said. 0 Inhn He thinks the bones were gnawed by giant short-faced bears. These bears were 5V2 feet tall from ground to shoulder when standing on all four legs.

When these creatures stood on their hind legs, they could be 14 feet tall. Many different kinds of animals can be found at a site from the late Ice Age, Schubert said. At the end of the Ice Age, the climate was still cold, so there is a good mix of animals. And where there were large animals such as mastodons, there were usually people hunting them. "There's big potential we'll also find early human stuff with these big animals," Schubert said.

"The end of the Ice Age was really a dynamic time." The Saltville site is yielding fossils that are very different from those found at Gray, a Miocene-era site that is about 7 million years old. The Gray site was discovered in recent years, when digging for a new road through the area turned up fossils. The Saltville fossil site offers educational opportunities for students from grade school to graduate school. This summer, Schubert encouraged teenagers and younger children from around Saltville to help him at the site. "It gives them an opportunity to learn more about their history," he said.

Contact Rex Barber at rbarberiajohnsoncitypress.com. fundraisers, the museum already has given the hospital $5,000, but an expansive Wings and Wheels event is planned for next spring or fall to entice members of airplane clubs to fly in and car clubs to drive in. "We want to have more events (and) earn more money" for the hospital, Wilson said. But other steps must take place first. Soon, volunteers will undertake one of the biggest operations to date: The 800-horsepower engine from one of its T-28s must be removed and prepared for shipment to California for repair.

A desire for movement The museum has committed to having its two 1950s-era, silver-gray T-28s in three Marine air shows next year. The engine overhaul is a $25,000 to $30,000 necessity, said Stewart Pruitt, a Chattanooga resident, museum volunteer and mechanical maintenance coordinator with Delta Air Lines in Atlanta. "Our (desire) is not to have static displays, but to keep things moving, to keep things living," he said. Another event, officials said, will feature 30-minute rides in the Piper Apache. There are no immediate plans for rides in the T-28s, they said.

Museum of Flight aims to keep aviation alive r. i David CLIMERa 1 JX' GLENNON 5 Jim VISITTENNESSEAN.COMTITANSCONTEST Last year Faith Hill went head-to-head with our sports staff with her pro football picks and won. Think you can do better? Make your picks for the first 12 weeks of the season and if you best Faith, you'll be eligible to win the weekly prize. The 12 weekly winners will then play each other for the grand prize. WEEKLY WINNER RECEIVES: By Clint Cooper CHATTANOOGA FREE TIMES PRESS CHATTANOOGA The T-28 fighter plane was used for U.S.

covert operations in Southeast Asia in the early 1960s. Another T-28 saw military action in both Vietnam and Honduras. The 1956 twin-engine Piper Apache was called "aviation's answer to the family station wagon." These and more are among the aircraft on display at the Museum of Flight (Hixson). The nonprofit museum, which opened at the Dallas Bay Skypark with little fanfare in May, is still in its infancy, but its curator and board members have big plans for its growth. "We love it so much.

We want to keep aviation alive," said Judy Wilson, a board member who also coordinates the museum's volunteers and sponsorships. The group's goals are to raise public awareness of historical aircraft and support T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital, she said. The connection to T.C. Thompson started earlier this decade when Pete O'Hare, a Marine Reserve officer and former Blue Angels pilot, came to Chattanooga for an air show and decided to settle here.

Through donors and Titans jersey and a hardbound Titans coffee-table book ONE GRAND-PRIZE WINNER RECEIVES: Four club seat tickets to the December 19 game On-field visit prior to the game Visit to the press box with Tennessean writers Food and beverage at the game The TENNESSEAN TENNESSEAN COM.