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By TYLER RALEY | Staff Writer

CHELSEA – The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office found 74-year-old William Chenoweth Sr. and 48-year-old William Chenoweth Jr. inside of a residence on the 200 block of The Narrows subdivision following a standoff on Tuesday, Jan. 28.

According to an official Facebook post from the Shelby County Coroner’s Office, no foul play seems to be involved with Chenoweth Sr.’s death following examination of the body. Both bodies will be further examined at the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences.

The son was found dead on a bed with a gunshot wound, while the father was found deceased in the bathtub with severe decomposition.

The SCSO was at the residence to serve a court order on the father, however, nobody answered the door after the police announced their presence. Law enforcement then breached the door and broke a window, at which time the son began firing shots out the window.

Following the gunshots out of the window, Sheriff John Samaniego said the entry team backed away and the son began coming down a hallway opening fire on them. The entry team returned shots and visibly saw where he had been hit.

Multiple agencies, the SWAT Team and the SCSO’s negotiating team all responded to the incident while the entry team retreated in an attempt to negotiate with the subject.

Authorities then opened the door remotely and flew a drone into the residence, which revealed the son sitting in a recliner, continually refusing to respond.

Law enforcement then continued to negotiate for several hours, and at approximately 11:30 a.m., deployed gas into the home. The deputies still did not receive any response from the subjects, but the drones revealed the son laying on a bed in the bedroom.

At that moment, authorities had still not seen the father in the residence, who the mental pickup was originally for.

A flash bang was then deployed in the house’s bedroom, to which the son did not respond or move to. As a result, the entry team went inside the residence at around 1:30 p.m., which revealed the son as being deceased on the bed he was laying on.

While clearing the rest of the house, law enforcement also found the father, who the pickup order was for, in a bathtub. Samaniego said that there was significant decomposition on the body.

“It looked like he had been deceased for several months,” Samaniego said. “There was a lot of decomposition.”

Authorities have now turned the investigation of the officer-involved shooting over to the State Bureau of Investigation of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

Samaniego went on to explain that the SCSO has been planning the pickup order for two months.

“Whenever you’re doing a mental health pickup, it’s a very fluid situation,” Samaniego said. “Sometimes it goes off without a hitch, sometimes there’s violence involved, so we have to be prepared for the plan.”

Samaniego continued by saying the reason the plan took multiple months was due to the fact that the situation was centered around both mental health and an eviction.

“Both an eviction and mental health are very volatile,” Samaniego said. “What we tried to do was work with the courts and got a stay for the eviction and then decided to use the mental health pickup to try and find a solution for the situation. We always plan every operation, but even though you plan for the worst, sometimes you still get the worst.”

Deputies evacuated the neighboring homes of the residence that was being served prior to arrival.

No members of law enforcement or residents in the subdivision were injured as a result of the standoff.

Updates will come at Shelbycountyreporter.com.