Contributed Photo/Courtesy GCSO: Ethan Tripp, left, and Allen Thompson, right, were both jailed after an incident involving a knife and gun.
Father advised he was protecting daughter from ‘sexual predator’
By Jon Johnson
GRAHAM COUNTY – Two men were booked into the Graham County Adult Detention Facility on Tuesday after an incident with a knife and gun.
Allen Richard Thompson, 44, was arrested on two counts of aggravated assault, threatening and intimidating, kidnapping, and burglary. On Thursday, the Graham County Attorney’s Office filed charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and threatening and intimidating.
The alleged victim, Ethan Earl Tripp, 29, was arrested for misconduct with a weapon (prohibited possessor) and booked into jail on Tuesday as well. The following day, a warrant was issued for his arrest for violating his probation, and a petition to revoke his probation was filed with the court.
Tripp is a registered sex offender who was found guilty in 2013 of sexual conduct with a minor who was 16 at the time and burglary in the second degree after signing a plea agreement. Tripp was 22 years old at the time of the offense and was married to another woman. The agreement dismissed several other charges, including two counts of sexual conduct with a minor, escape, and resisting arrest. The victim in that case later married Tripp in 2018 and has had multiple children with him.
However, before that happened, he was charged with more sex offender charges in 2014 and later plead guilty in 2016 to attempted sexual conduct with a minor, and sexual conduct with a minor and was given lifetime sexual offender probation.
A charge of molestation of a child was dismissed due to the plea. That case involved an 8-year-old victim from incidents that actually occurred in 2007 when Tripp was 15 or 16, according to the victim’s family members.
On Tuesday afternoon, a deputy was dispatched to Tripp’s residence after he had an altercation with his wife’s father, Thompson.
According to Tripp, he had an argument with his wife and that he had “gotten mad and snapped.” He said his wife left and then came back to pick up their children to go stay at her father’s house.
At that time, Tripp said Thompson approached and questioned if he had assaulted his daughter. Tripp said Thompson held a knife to his throat and threatened him while telling him to leave the residence. He later showed the deputy surveillance video of the home showing Thompson holding a knife to his throat. The video did not have any audio. Two other men were with Thompson at the time but were just seen being present and were not involved in the altercation.
While at the residence, Tripp’s probation officer discovered ammunition and a gun holster in a saddlebag on Tripp’s motorcycle.
Tripp allegedly said he had gotten the ammo out of his wife’s vehicle but didn’t have the weapon. The gun was later found hidden behind a glove box door in another vehicle that Tripp’s wife said he had been inside. The gun was a black .357 revolver and was loaded with six rounds.
After locating the weapon, the deputy placed Tripp under arrest, and Tripp allegedly replied, “you found it.” Tripp was then booked into jail for being a prohibited possessor of a firearm.
Deputies then located Thompson at a tattoo shop on 5th Avenue.
During questioning, Thompson said his daughter told him Tripp had “choked her out” and that he went to the house to remove Tripp from the residence. He said the two other men were there with him to make sure that he didn’t “do something stupid.”
Thompson allegedly acknowledged holding the knife to Tripp’s throat but said he did so only because Tripp had told his daughter that he was going to shoot him. He added that he would do whatever was necessary to protect his daughter.
Thompson then retrieved the knife and gave it to the deputy. Afterward, he was arrested on his above-listed charges and booked into jail.
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