Jillian Ludwig kicks off her freshman year at Nashville's Belmont University in her first weeks by settling into a routine that includes putting her musical talents to work and enjoying the great outdoors.
Ludwig is walking on the track in Edgehill Community Memorial Gardens Park at 2:30 p.m. when gunshots ring out from across the street. Jillian Ludwig is not the intended target, but she is hit in the head with a stray bullet. Nobody else is on the track, and Ludwig suffers for nearly an hour before she is found on the ground with a gunshot wound to the head.
She is transported to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in very critical condition.
As Jillian Ludwig fights for her life in Vanderbilt University Medical Center, police arrest 29-year-old Shaquille Taylor. Surveillance video and witness statements point to Taylor as the shooter. Video shows Ludwig falling as Taylor shoots at a car. He's charged with aggravated assault, evidence tampering, and failure to appear on a different felony charge.
Taylor is someone well-known to Nashville's law enforcement community. His record stretches back more than a decade. His latest arrest was on September 21. Taylor was driving a Ford F-150 pickup truck that had been carjacked by two men wearing ski masks on September 16. Taylor did not admit to being involved in the carjacking in any way but he was charged with felony auto theft and was released on a bond. Taylor was due in court just days before the shooting of Jillian Ludwig but he failed to show up.
Despite multiple arrests, Taylor had been released from custody after three court-appointed psychologists deemed him incompetent to stand trial, and also found he didn't pose an imminent threat to himself or others. According to court records, Shaquille Taylor has an intellectual disability and language impairment, With that determination, it means he isn't able to participate in a trial.
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