A state prison parolee is jailed on charges of especially aggravated kidnapping and attempted especially aggravated robbery for forcing an employee of the Sonic restaurant at 1331 Bell Road into a dumpster before attacking a second employee with a pipe inside the business.
Lawrence Trent Taylor, 43, of Sugar Mill Drive, was apprehended while hiding inside an industrial dumpster behind a nearby strip mall. Taylor was convicted of aggravated robbery in Nashville in 2003 and of robbery in Rutherford County in 2002. He was sentenced to eight years.
At 12:35 a.m. today, Taylor and an accomplice confronted a Sonic employee who was taking out the trash and ordered him into the dumpster. Taylor’s accomplice then attacked a female Sonic employee who was checking the restrooms. She was punched and knocked to the ground. Taylor then went inside the restaurant and hit the third Sonic employee on the head with a metal pipe. That employee was also punched, but managed to fight back. He put Taylor in a headlock and pulled him to the back door. The accomplice fled the premises at that point. Taylor got free, prompting the employee who had been fighting with him to run to his car and retrieve a pistol. The employee pursued Taylor and fired shots at him.
South Precinct officers arrived quickly and set up a perimeter. A police dog tracked Taylor to the dumpster behind the strip mall. Taylor refused to obey commands to surrender. A police helicopter, using heat detection equipment, hovered over the dumpster and radioed that a human was apparently inside. SWAT officers responded and set off very loud distraction devices inside the dumpster. That action prompted Taylor to give up. The pipe was also recovered.
Two of the Sonic employees were taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for treatment of head injuries. Taylor was taken to General Hospital for treatment of cuts to his head caused during the fight with the Sonic employee.
Taylor is being held in lieu of $300,000 bond. The state is expected to file a parole violation warrant against him soon. Efforts continue to identify his accomplice.
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