Man Threatens Store Clerks

Friday in Newport a man walked into two different convenience stores on Cosby Hwy and threatened to kill the clerk. An employee at Zoomers on the corner of Cosby Hwy and Old Cave Church Rd next to I-40 stated a man with a beard wearing a cowboy hat came into the store and threatened to kill her…the man then left and went across Cosby Hwy to Weigel’s. Before that the man had been at the Marathon station across from Zoomers and did the same thing to the clerk there. Police caught up with the suspect who was 29 year old Arthur Smith. Smith told police he didn’t threaten to kill either clerk, just knock them out. He was arrested by police for disorderly conduct and transported to the Cocke County Jail.