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Tenn. officer shoots man with gun, bomb-making materials

By CLAY CAREY, Staff Writer
The Tennessean

Smyrna, TN -- The man shot and killed by a police officer at his Smyrna apartment Friday night was armed with a gun and had bomb-making materials inside his apartment, police said.

Smyrna police were summoned to the Executive House Apartments around 7:20 p.m. Friday by a caller who said a man had hidden a gun in the bushes in front of the building and was collecting explosives inside the apartment, police said in a news release.

When police arrived, they found Gregory Dayton, 54, a resident of the apartment complex, in the hallway, armed with a gun.

Dayton “did not respond to verbal commands by officers” and when he presented the gun, one officer shot him, according to the release. He was taken to a local hospital, where he died later that night.

The officer who fired the fatal shot, Luke Naylor, is on routine paid administrative leave while the shooting is investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, police said. TBI spokeswoman Jennifer Johnson said that investigation could take weeks.

After the shooting, authorities found explosives inside Dayton’s apartment.