In the pre-dawn hours of September 6, 2001, Donald Kenneth Bond, a 35-year-old white male serving as a Deputy Sheriff for the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, was on duty in Chattanooga, Tennessee. After completing a call around 1:30 a.m., he noticed unusual activity at a produce stand located at 9200 East Brainerd Road and proceeded to investigate. It was a decision that would prove fatal.
As he began to look into the suspicious circumstances, he was ambushed and brutally shot nine times with an AK-47 rifle. The attack was sudden and overwhelming, and Deputy Bond died at the scene. His assailant then stole the front panel of his protective vest and his service weapon.
Concern arose when dispatchers were unable to reach Deputy Bond by radio or phone at 2:20 a.m. A search was initiated, leading to the discovery of his body at the produce stand. The law enforcement community was shaken by the violent death of one of their own, who had served with the department for two years. He was survived by his wife, parents, a brother, and a sister.
The investigation into the murder quickly gained momentum thanks to tips from informants. These leads pointed investigators to a suspect named Marlon Duane Kiser. The morning after the shooting, as officers moved in to apprehend Kiser at his residence, they witnessed him attempting to discard Deputy Bond's stolen gun and vest panel from his back porch. This critical piece of evidence directly linked him to the crime scene and the fallen officer.
Marlon Duane Kiser was arrested and subsequently charged with the capital murder of Deputy Bond. During his trial, it was revealed that Bond had interrupted Kiser's attempt to commit arson at the fruit stand. Kiser was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder. Despite the advice of his legal counsel, Kiser chose to waive his right to present mitigating evidence during the sentencing phase of his trial. The jury sentenced him to death by lethal injection. Following his conviction, Kiser pursued appeals, at one point claiming his roommate was the actual killer, but the Tennessee Supreme Court upheld his death sentence. However, the sentence was never carried out. On September 30, 2020, after years on death row, Marlon Duane Kiser died of natural causes in prison.
