The Macon County Sheriff's Department and the Lafayette Police Department S.W.A.T. team successfully brought a potentially deadly situation under control without having to fire shots, Tuesday May 1.

Clint Wright, believed to be in his early forties and a resident of Smyrna, Tennessee, begged sheriff's deputies to shoot him and repeatedly turned a pistol on himself while law enforcement officials tried unsuccessfully to talk him out of a vehicle on Toney Rd., in Lafayette, last Tuesday afternoon, according to Macon County Sheriff Mark Gammons.

Wright was flown to Vanderbilt University Medical Center by the Air Evac helicopter when Macon County EMS personnel determined the man's incoherence might be the result of consuming an unknown quantity of pills, the sheriff reported.

Deputies Michael Veatch and Larry West responded when a Toney Road property owner reportedly called the Macon County Sheriff's Department at approximately 3:30 Tuesday afternoon, May 1 and reported an unfamiliar vehicle with an unresponsive occupant parked on the property.

The deputies called for back-up when they awakened Wright and discovered he was armed.

Sheriff Mark Gammons, Captain Danny Gross, and Detectives Bill Cothron and Bennie Hudgens joined Veatch and West and attempted to negotiate with Wright for about an hour before the sheriff called the Lafayette Police Department for S.W.A.T. team assistance.

"He kept saying he wanted us to shoot him; and he put the gun to his own head several times," Sheriff Mark Gammons explained.

The S.W.A.T. team fired tear gas into the parked vehicle, according to the sheriff.

"We're extremely thankful everything turned out good and no one was physically hurt," LPD Chief Jerry Dallas said.

After tear gas was deployed to bring the dangerous situation under control, the pistol Wright had wielded was found to be jammed, according to the sheriff.

"He's still in Vanderbilt and no charges have been filed at this time," Sheriff Gammons explained.