At approximately 6:45pm on 06/20/2013  I left Turkey Creek and headed upstream on the main channel in my patrol boat.  I noticed a person drifting in the middle of the channel.  There were no boats in the immediate area.  I approached the subject and asked him if he was ok.  He said no.  I asked him what was wrong with him and he replied he did not know.  I asked him how he got in the middle of the lake and he replied he didn''t know.  A jet ski approached my patrol boat from downstream and the occupants said they had found an empty kayak about a half mile downstream.  The subject in the water said he had been in a kayak.  I asked the man in the water what his name was.  He said he wasn''t sure.  I told him to climb the ladder and get into my boat.  He was unable to do so. I pulled him into the boat and sat him down.  I could smell a strong odor of alcohol around him. He repeatedly tried to stand up and remove his pfd.  I repeatedly told him to stay seated and leave his pfd buckled.  I forced him to sit and I buckled his pfd up multiple times.  At some point he remembered his name.  I transported him to the Concord boat ramp.  EMS checked him there.  He refused treatment.  EMS said he may have early stages of hypothermia.  I wrote a citation for public intoxication.  He refused to sign the citation.  I arrested him and he was transported to the Knox County Jail.  The two witnesses on the PWC gave a written statement.  Another vessel towed the kayak to the Concord boat ramp and also gave a written statement.  I released the kayak.

Subject fell out of the kayak due to alcohol use and a wake.
KNOXVILLE