Ashland City police arrest man with stolen gun, Dept. of Correction badge

CHEATHAM COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — State and local authorities are investigating how a convicted felon ended up with a Tennessee Department of Correction (DOC) badge and stolen handgun.

It all began shortly after 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, July 21 when members of the Ashland City Police Department stopped a vehicle driven by Seth Ryan Hall.

According to officers, when they ran the the 31-year-old’s license plate, there was no record of it with the state.

“Not gonna lie, my license is suspended,” Hall said.

On the body camera footage, you hear the officers interacting with Hall, a convicted felon who is reportedly well-known to police.

“It’s not the first time he’s been in our jail, or other places, too,” Ashland City Police Chief Kenny Ray told News 2.

After getting consent to search Hall’s car, police said they found methamphetamine, a drug pipe, a .22 caliber handgun reported stolen out of Nashville, and a DOC badge.

“Why the frick would he have a C.O.’s badge?” one officer asked.

“Probably stole it,” another officer replied.

Once they got Hall in the back seat, authorities questioned him about the items in his vehicle.

Officer: “Where I found the meth pipe, obviously there was a gun right there with it, okay? A gun stolen out of Metro. There’s also a badge in there that was [for a] corrections officer.”

Hall: “The pipe’s mine.”

Officer: “The pipe’s yours?”

Hall: “The pipe’s mine. I’ll take that. That gun and that badge doesn’t belong to me.”

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After contacting the DOC, News 2 received the following response from DOC Communications Director Dorinda Carter: “Procedures are in place to ensure accountability of state issued property. When there is a violation, the case is reviewed for appropriate action.”

Hall was ultimately booked into the Cheatham County Jail and charged with possession of meth, driving on a suspended license, and possession of stolen property for the gun and the badge. News 2 asked him for an interview, but he declined.

Ray said his officers did a good job: “They did their job. They went beyond the traffic stop and asked a lot of questions and done a lot of extra work with it.”

Investigators in other counties told News 2 they are very interested in Hall– more specifically, how and where he came into possession of that gun and badge.

Meanwhile, Dickson County Sheriff Tim Eads confirmed the Ashland City arrest has yielded significant clues that led to the arrest of two individuals connected to a widespread auto burglary spree, which News 2 recently reported.

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