Fairview Man Arrested After Pointing Gun at WCSO Deputy

A Fairview man was arrested after pointing a gun at a Williamson County Sheriff’s Office deputy during a “domestic disturbance” caught on camera.

Fifty-year-old Robert Lawrence Sorell was charged with aggravated assault, assault on a public servant and contempt of court. He was booked in jail on a $83,000.50 bond.

WCSO released dash camera and body camera footage of the incident which took place at approximately 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the parking lot of a business on Fairview Boulevard.

That video shows Sorell inside of a white truck and a woman standing outside of the truck who was described in a warrant as his “common law wife."

Sorrel attempted to drive away from the scene, and at a slow rate of speed pushed both the deputy and the woman with the front end of his truck as they attempted to block him from driving away.

The deputy then moved to the driver’s side of the truck and attempted to open the door before hitting the window with his hand, at which point, Sorell quickly drew a .40 caliber pistol and pointed it at the deputy, causing the woman to scream.

The deputy turned away and drew his service pistol and backed up toward his patrol vehicle, but no shots were fired and no one was injured in the incident which occurred in front of three Fairview Police officers.

All of this happened in some 45 seconds of the deputy arriving on the scene and that is when the video footage ends. The recordings were provided by WCSO with a warrant filed in a Williamson County General Sessions Court which also provides additional details.

“Mr. Sorell barricaded himself in the vehicle, occasionally rolling down his window to yell at officers to shoot him,” the warrant reads in part.

It also states the woman said that “Mr. Sorell was a combat veteran who got blown up in Iraq.”

The deputy wrote in the warrant that he "used this information to talk with Mr. Sorell while trying to de-escalate the situation.”

“Mr. Sorell eventually rolled his window halfway down, and I continued to talk with him giving him information about my combat veteran status. I was able to de-escalate the situation to the point where Mr. Sorell was ready to give himself up to deputies/officers on scene.”

Sorell, a diabetic, was taken into custody without further incident and transported to and released from an area hospital with elevated glucose levels. At the time of publishing, he does not have a court date listed.