Knoxville police arrested Jermal Cannon on a grand jury indictment in the 2023 killing of plumber Chris Hill.

A grand jury indictment and a jail booking are accusations. They are not a conviction. Knoxville police said Community Engagement Response Team officers spotted him leaving an apartment on Austin Homes Boulevard and stopped the car he was riding in. The charging paper names first-degree murder, conspiracy, solicitation, and felony theft. None of those counts has been proved.

On Dec. 13, 2023, Knoxville Police Department officers were dispatched to 218 E. Depot Avenue in the Old City. The department said 51-year-old Chris Hill, an area plumber, was found shot multiple times and lying unresponsive next to a box truck. He was pronounced dead at the scene. WBIR reported the location as outside Knox Rail Salvage and said police at the time called it an apparent targeted shooting and said the suspect drove away before officers arrived. That 2023 description is how police characterized the scene. It is not a finding that Cannon fired the shots.

The Knoxville Police Department said a yearslong homicide investigation led to a Knox County grand jury indictment of Cannon for first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, solicitation of first-degree murder, and felony theft. On Thursday, just after 6 p.m., Community Engagement Response Team officers spotted him leaving an apartment on Austin Homes Boulevard and stopped the car near Summit Hill Drive and Patton Street. Cannon was a passenger. The department said he was taken into custody without issue and booked into the Roger D. Wilson Detention Facility on a $2 million bond. WBIR reported that court records list him as living in Detroit, Michigan. A residence line on a court record is a notation. It is not evidence of the shooting.

An indictment is a formal accusation a grand jury returns. A $2 million bond is a custody condition. WVLT reported that Cannon will make an initial court appearance in Knox County Criminal Court to face those indictment charges. The outlet did not publish a date for that appearance. An appearance is process. Cannon is presumed innocent unless a court finds otherwise.