Three arrested after incident at unruly city council meeting in Hawk Cove
May 22—Three people were arrested on Tuesday during a city council meeting that turned hostile in Hawk Cove.
Tiffany Dawn Browning, 35, was charged with assaulting a peace officer, resisting arrest or transport, disrupting a meeting, public intoxication and making a terroristic threat "causing fear of imminent bodily injury."
That same evening, Kenneth Cole, 73, was arrested on charges of resisting arrest or transport and disrupting a meeting.
A third individual is also facing arrest — a 74-year-old male whose name has not been released was taken to Hunt Regional Medical Center in Quinlan for treatment for "unrelated medical issues," where he spent the night and was not yet booked into jail.
Both Browning and Cole have since bonded out from Hunt County Detention Center, according to jail records.
The disturbance happened at a meeting in which a special election to fill two vacant seats on the Hawk Cove City Council was one of the items on the agenda.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, Cole read a letter to the board, after which out-loud discussion started between multiple attendees and they ignored Mayor Darren Evans' call for order. Similarly, Cole also refused to comply with the call for order, prompting one of four Hawk Cove police officers who were in attendance to tell him to sit down or leave.
When the officer proceeded to escort Cole out of the council chamber, Cole struggled against him and others followed them out while aggressively protesting the removal.
When the heated feud between the police officers, the three who were eventually arrested, and other attendees spilled outside the Judy Fowler Complex, Hunt County Sheriff's Office deputies, the Quinlan Fire Department and American Medical Response EMS soon responded.
Because of the disruption, Evans ended the meeting early because three Council members — Rebecca Bernardi, Mark Beatte and Dotty Spence — also refused the call to order and left their seats.
