2 tied to trooper’s death arrested in Tennessee

updated 6:52 p.m. ET Jan. 7, 2007

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - State officials said Sunday they had arrested two teens they believed were responsible for the killing of a state trooper who was shot during a traffic stop in western Tennessee.

The 24-year-old trooper pulled over two men and was trying to get them out of the vehicle Saturday night when he was shot twice, according to footage from the patrol car’s video camera. At least one bullet struck him in the head, said Mike Browning, a Department of Safety spokesman.

On Sunday, Alejandro Guana, 17, and Orlando Garcia, 19, were arrested without incident at a hotel near downtown Nashville, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Jennifer Johnson said.

“After interviewing the two men we feel confident we have the two people in custody that murdered the state trooper,” TBI director Mark Gwyn said.

Hunters found Trooper Calvin Jenks’ body beside his patrol car near the intersection of two state highways, Browning said.

Authorities believed the suspects were carrying drugs and drove toward Nashville after the shooting in Tipton County, just north of Memphis, Browning said before Sunday’s arrests.

Jenks smelled marijuana on the driver, Browning said. When Jenks asked the man whether he had drugs in the car, the suspect eventually admitted there were drugs in the center console, Browning said.

Jenks went back to the passenger and asked him whether he had drugs. The man said he didn’t, then opened fire, Browning said.

Investigators found what they believe is Jenks’ flashlight in a garbage can at a Wal-Mart in Brownsville, 13 miles east of the scene of the shooting.

Jenks, 24, had been a trooper for two years and transferred to the Tipton area from Marshall County in 2005 to be closer to his new wife, he said.

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