In the early morning hours of a February day in Elizabethton, Tennessee, the life of 43-year-old Jeremy Edward Cross, a Caucasian male, was cut short by gunfire. On February 19, 2022, in the Sinking Creek community, Cross was fatally shot in the chest. Authorities were alerted to the violence on Hillside Drive by multiple reports of shots fired around 1:00 a.m. Responding deputies from the Carter County Sheriff's Office discovered Cross with a serious gunshot wound. Despite their efforts to administer CPR before he was rushed to the hospital, he succumbed to his injuries shortly after arrival.
The investigation into the shooting quickly led authorities to identify two persons of interest: 25-year-old Austin Michael Brady and 40-year-old Kenneth Matthew Dayton. The Carter County Sheriff's Office announced that both men were wanted for questioning in connection with the homicide and that both had active arrest warrants. Investigators at the scene determined that there had been an exchange of gunfire. It was also discovered that Jeremy Cross had been driving a stolen vehicle at the time of the incident and was himself wanted on multiple arrest warrants.
The search for Brady and Dayton came to an end in the weeks that followed. Austin Brady was apprehended by authorities. Kenneth Dayton was also located and arrested, an event that concluded with a standoff. However, reports indicated that Dayton's arrest was on charges unrelated to the death of Jeremy Cross. While both men were taken into custody, the investigation into who fired the fatal shot that killed Jeremy Cross continued. The Carter County Sheriff's Office has not publicly identified a suspect in the shooting itself, and the case remains an ongoing investigation.
