Chief gives more details after Warner Robins Police SWAT Team responds to domestic incident

WARNER ROBINS — A house on Wisconsin Avenue was the scene of heavy law enforcement presence Tuesday as the SWAT team was deployed after a fight, Warner Robins Police Department said.

According to a release by the department, June 4, around 8:15 a.m., officers responded to an aggravated battery at the 200 Block of Johns Road. The victim, identified as Youncy Toliver, was in a verbal altercation with Johnny Knight. 

According to Police Chief Wayne Fisher, Toliver brought out a gun to defend himself; Knight grabbed the gun and began beating him with the weapon, causing serious head injuries. Toliver was transported to the hospital and was reported stable.

Around 9 a.m., police responded to a house at the 200 block of Wisconsin Avenue to locate Knight after a witness statement. When they arrived, they noticed movement, but were unable to make contact with those inside. According to Fisher, police determined Knight was inside the residence but he would not communicate with law enforcement.

Since Knight was armed and due to the nature of the assault, the SWAT Team responded, treating the case as a barricaded subject. The team was on scene until around 1:30 p.m., using technology to communicate with Knight. He ultimately surrendered peacefully and was transported to the hospital for preexisting medical conditions.

Speaking to media about the case, Fisher said the SWAT team’s response was a textbook example of how to respond to the incident, peaceful from both parties.

“There was nothing that we could come back out to and say would be done differently. We minimized all our human interaction points as much as we could through the process of engaging with Mr. Knight by utilization of technologies. That way, if Mr. Knight had chose to engage in some violence, it wasn’t something that was directed towards a person at that point. [We] still afforded us a buffer of time, distance and engage points to resolve it in a more peaceful fashion,” he said.

Fisher said the SWAT team is typically called for different tactics and on different levels, like for drug search warrants. For emergency call outs like Tuesday’s incident, he said the team was deployed two times in 2023 and twice this year.

“It’s not very frequent, but it is a resource and tool that we need to have in law enforcement to address these situations that do arise, so you have the proper people trained with the proper tactics. So we can always resolve the situation in the most peaceful fashion that we can,” he said.

Tuesday’s incident, Fisher said, was a domestic incident; all involved parties knew each other, and it was not a random act of violence warranting community concern. To ensure safety, police notified residents and advised to avoid the area.

“We can’t force them out, but in interest of safety, a point I would make is if available an opportunity for you to egress from a scene that is building up such as that, take that time to go ahead and withdraw yourself from the scene. Don’t become a collateral injury to the situation,” he said.

Fisher also said the domestic is among average crime levels and should not represent the community it took place in.

“What happened yesterday was not representative to the good people within that community and the city of Warner Robins. The two matters don’t correlate one to the other. In regards to crime issues in the city, our crime stats and trend data is holding us to about the same levels quarterly where we’re at last year, and we had a downturn in crime last year,” he said. “The city of Warner Robins is a safe community. We’re doing well in our community as far as keeping it safe and within our engagements within the public.”