The Jackson Sun

According to a news release, officers from the Huntingdon Police Department responded early Saturday morning to a residence at Hunter Ridge Apartments to investigate a report of shots fired.

Once on the scene, officers found 18-year-old Peyton Gates with a gunshot wound to his head, the release said. Beside him was reportedly a .38 Smith & Wesson revolver.

Gates was still breathing and taken by ambulance to the hospital in Huntingdon. He was then transferred to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, where he was pronounced dead shortly before noon Saturday.

Gates was a graduate of Huntingdon High School who would have turned 19 on May 7, according to Walter Smothers, director of public safety in Huntingdon.

Smothers said Gates was excited to have recently been accepted into the military.

An investigation was conducted by officers and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and it was concluded that the gunshot was self-inflicted and believed to be accidental, the release said. A full autopsy will be performed today in Nashville.

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