Elizabethton City Police, Carter County Sheriff’s Department and SWAT officials converged upon Traveller’s Inn mid-afternoon Thursday to respond to a gunshot reported by an officer at the scene.

City Police Chief Jason Shaw said they first received a call around 2:29 p.m. and first heard a gunshot roughly 10 minutes after that.

“Officers were dispatched to someone who refused to leave their motel room,” Shaw said.

Shaw said the time paid had been up. The person refused and barricaded themselves in the room. That was when the motel made the call.

Officials entered a stand-off outside the hotel upon hearing the gunshot before making entry, where they found the person dead in the motel room of an apparent suicide.

Shaw said he believed there was an attempt made to reach the family at that time, but he could not confirm that on the scene.

Officials did not provide specific details on the suspect in question, but did confirm their death.

“It is a sad situation,” he said.

Officials had blocked off traffic near the hotel for about an hour while the stand-off took place.