Fatal Shooting Under Investigation By Sheriff’s Department And TBI

The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are probing the fatal shooting of a Smithville man in Dowelltown Sunday evening.
Dead is 29 year old David Crook of New Home Road, Smithville.
Crook, the driver of an SUV, was found slumped over in the vehicle on East Main Street in Dowelltown, having suffered a gunshot wound to the head by a 40 caliber handgun.
The man who had been in the vehicle with him, Greg Patton of Smithville, apparently told authorities that Crook had been distraught and suicidal.
Sheriff Lloyd Emmons says a thorough investigation is being conducted but preliminary indications are that this may have been a self-inflicted shooting.
According to Sheriff Emmons, Crook and Patton had spent the weekend in Bowling Green Kentucky, where they attended a flea market, and had stopped off at the residence of Crook’s sister on Circle Drive in Dowelltown on the way back home.
Sheriff Emmons says after the visit to the Dowelltown residence, the two men got back in the SUV and drove away. He says Crook, who was driving, pulled over on East Main Street where the shooting occurred.
After the shooting, Patton ran to a nearby residence to call 911. He then ran back to the SUV.. A motorist, who came upon the scene, saw Patton taking some things from the vehicle and then flee on foot.
Law enforcement officers conducted a ground and aerial search for Patton and he was spotted from a helicopter about a half mile from where the shooting occurred. He surrendered without incident.
Sheriff Emmons says Patton remains in custody pending a further investigation by the Sheriff’s Department and TBI. Among the officers involved at the scene Sunday evening were Sheriff Emmons, Chief Deputy Milton Bowling, County Deputies Andy Snow and Jon Slager, Reserve Deputies Dustin Johnson and David Sharp who brought in a K-9, TBI Special Agent Billy Miller, and Troopers Charles Caplinger and Allen England from the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
An autopsy will be performed on Crook’s body.