MURFEESBORO, Tenn. (WTVF) — Elbony Weatherspoon says she’s lucky to be alive.
Her ex-boyfriend threatened to kill her and himself with Weatherspoon’s gun, but it was only after she got proof that she said Murfreesboro Police were quick to act.
Officers responded to Weatherspoon’s home back in August to find Michael Thibodeau had barricaded himself inside, armed with the gun Weatherspoon reported missing two days earlier.
Police used tear gas and rubber bullets during a three-hour standoff before Thibodeau finally surrendered.
He was later charged with aggravated domestic assault, vandalism and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon.
Thibodeau flipped over furniture, fired several rounds in the floors and punched holes in the walls.
What made matters worse for Weatherspoon was that her renter’s insurance had just lapsed, leaving her with no way of paying for damages and no home for her three children.
All this from a man Weatherspoon had only dated for three weeks.
“The person that I met. The person that I knew. That was not him,” Weatherspoon said.
Weatherspoon ran a check on everything about Thibodeau before the two began dating. She ran a credit check, reached out to friends for references, and found nothing out of the ordinary. Weatherspoon did find a criminal history but noticed most of the charges had been dismissed.
What she didn’t know was why so many charges had been dismissed.
It’s not exactly the kind of thought that comes to mind weeks into a relationship, but NewsChannel 5 Investigates found the man Weatherspoon was dating was found incompetent to stand trial in 2009 after being diagnosed as manic bipolar.
Weatherspoon said she first noticed something was wrong when Thibodeau began posting strange things on social media.
Soon, Thibodeau’s own family was calling to warn Weatherspoon that he wasn’t taking his medication.
“I said, 'Listen, let’s go to a hospital. It’s not jail. They can’t keep you if they don’t need to keep you. I will go with you.' I tried my best to be open and honest and be there for him in that time frame,” Weatherspoon said.
Two days before Thibodeau destroyed her home, Weatherspoon called Murfreesboro Police saying she had given Thibodeau an ultimatum.
“I told him either you’re going to go to a mental hospital, you’re going to get checked or we can no longer talk anymore,” Weatherspoon said.
Body camera footage from that day showed officers responding to Weatherspoon’s home. Officers asked if Thibodeau had been physical with her, but she said it was all verbal.
Weatherspoon then told officers that her 9mm pistol was missing. She said the gun was in plain view when Thibodeau was at the house, but now she can’t find it.
Officers spent the next six minutes searching her home and turned up nothing. They tracked down Thibodeau walking down the road and asked if they could search his bags.
Thibodeau denied taking the gun and refused to let officers search his belongings.
Officers made the request again, after warning Thibodeau that he could be listed as a suspect in the theft of a missing gun. Thibodeau once again refused.
We shared the footage with Nashville attorney Joey Fuson of Freeman & Fuson who said that unless officers went on to request a search warrant, this is where the investigation ends.
“They can’t use his denial of a search as grounds for the search,” Fuson said.
We don’t know why officers didn’t request a search warrant, but had officers made the request, they may have seen some of the same elements we discovered.
Like how back in 2020, Florida police arrested Thibodeau after an almost identical domestic dispute.
A woman claimed Thibodeau had a gun, so police asked him. Thibodeau said no and refused to let officers search his bag. Officers later found ammo nearby, so they checked his bag anyway and found a pistol.
“In a case that involves searching a person, you have to have specific, articulatable facts that would lead a reasonable officer to believe that not only was there a crime committed, but there’s evidence of the crime in the possession of the defendant,” Fuson said.
Fuson says Weatherspoon would have had to tell police that she knew Thibodeau had her gun for them to have enough probable cause for a search.
“I think if I say my gun was here when he was here and it’s gone when he’s gone, I think that should be more than enough reasonable evidence to at least search him. Especially if I’m saying that he’s having a manic episode,” Weatherspoon said.
Either way, police never said anything about a gun in their report or that Thibodeau was perhaps having a mental health crisis. So, now the man suspected of stealing a gun from the woman who called the cops on him was free to go.
Hours later police got several more calls from people including a nearby hotel manager, concerned about the way Thibodeau was acting.
Every time police spotted Thibodeau, he would say things that had nothing to do with what was happening. Officers even explained to one hotel employee that “acting crazy isn’t illegal.”
In one encounter, officers asked Thibodeau if he had any thoughts of harming himself.
“Not at all. I’m just working. I’m doing art. Mentally, the people who I’ve told you did this to my family. I’m on a spiritual warpath — like I’m a Boondock Saint for real. Like from heaven,” Thibodeau said.
Fuson said acting strange is not enough to legally search Thibodeau.
Instead, police told Weatherspoon not to invite Thibodeau back into her home, but her concern was for the missing gun. Weatherspoon tells us she felt she had to invite Thibodeau back if it meant at least knowing no one else would be at risk.
“Every time I called 911, they would ask, do you have proof? Do you have proof he’s manic? Do you have proof he’s a danger,” Weatherspoon said.
Weatherspoon invited Thibodeau back but this time, recorded the interaction on her phone.
“As soon as he sat in my car, he pulled the gun out, and I’m thinking to myself, he had the gun on him the whole time,” Weatherspoon said.
We could now hear Thibodeau threaten to kill himself and make it look as if Weatherspoon pulled the trigger.
With the recording in hand, Weatherspoon ran out of her home and called Murfreesboro Police. She shared the recording and officers surrounded the home within minutes.
Murfreesboro Police declined our request for an on-camera interview but sent a statement not unlike the response they sent Weatherspoon after she filed a complaint.
“As part of the Internal Investigation, it was determined that the responding officers lacked both the probable cause or consent required to conduct a lawful search of Michael Thibodeau’s belongings for a firearm. Based on the information known at the time, the complainant in this matter expressed uncertainty as to the location of the firearm indicating that Thibodeau may or may not have it in his possession. The uncertainty raised a reasonable concern that a search most likely would have violated Mr. Thibodeau’s rights under the Fourth Amendment. If she was later unsuccessful in locating her firearm in her home, or elsewhere, she was instructed to call MPD. We stand behind the decision our officers made regarding the lack of a lawful means to search Mr. Thibodeau and his belongings based on the information they had at the time.”
Weatherspoon says while she understands that some policies protect rights, they must also protect people.
“I am 38 years old. I’ve got three kids that I take care of and never in my life have I felt so hopeless to the point where I was like, I have to put myself in danger to save me,” Weatherspoon said.
Thibodeau has remained in the Rutherford County Detention Center while he waits on another hearing in March.
Meanwhile, Weatherspoon is advocating to make it mandatory for police to request a search warrant when a domestic incident involves threats of a gun.
