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Booking photo of Michael Wayne Dockery
(Contributed / Washington County Detention Center)

Greeneville man charged with robbery in Food City parking lot

By JohnsonCityPress.com
webstaff@johnsoncitypress.com

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A Greeneville man was arrested Thursday for a robbery at a Piney Flats grocery store that occurred Tuesday, as a Blountville man told Johnson City police he was robbed of cash and beaten with a pipe in the store’s parking lot.

Police charged Michael Wayne Dockery, 40, 1946 Snapps Ferry Road, Greeneville, with robbery after an investigation into an incident at the Food City at 5970 Highway 11E, Piney Flats.

According to a police report, Brandon M. Twardowski, 23, 264 Harr Lane, Blountville, told officers he and another man, Nathaniel C. McMurray, 21, 14 Lake Village Court, Johnson City, went to the store’s lot to buy a laptop computer from two men who arrived in a red Ford 150 pickup.

As Twardowski pulled $500 out in an envelope, one of the men identified at the time as “Mike,” grabbed the cash from Twardowski’s hands, police said in the report, and Twardowski asked for the laptop. “Mike” told Twardowski he was not getting anything.

Several times, Twardowski asked for his money back, police said, and the second man picked up a piece of pipe from the truck bed and started toward Twardowski.

McMurray saw the pipe and drove away, police said.

A fight followed between Twardowski and the two men. Twardowski told police he was struck with the pipe and fists several times. He had abrasions on his right arm, left shoulder and left leg, as well as swelling on his left jaw, police said.

The two men sped away in the Ford truck after the fight, according to the report.

Surveillance video from Food City captured images of both the incident and the vehicles involved, but the pickup’s tag was partially covered. The video was taken from a distance and was partially obscured by a steel pole, police said in the report.

After an investigation, police identified Dockery as a suspect, and using statements and the witness reports, Dockery was arrested and charged with the robbery, police said.

Dockery was jailed in the Washington County Detention Center on $50,000 bond pending a Sessions Court appearance Monday afternoon.