Man set free after assault charge kills 18-year-old college student, Tennessee suit says

A man charged with aggravated assault was allowed to walk free due to a legal technicality, then he shot and killed an 18-year-old college freshman exercising in a park, a Tennessee lawsuit says.

Shaquille Taylor, 30, was aiming for someone driving by in a car, but he missed and ended up shooting Jillian Ludwig in the head, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said.

She lay on the ground for over an hour until someone found her and called for help, police said.

Ludwig’s mother and father have now filed a lawsuit obtained by WKRN against Belmont University, the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, and an array of other individuals and government subsidiaries in connection with the young woman’s death in November 2023.

“This is new information as we have not yet been served with this lawsuit and need time to review,” a spokesperson for Belmont University told McClatchy News. “What we can tell you is that our entire campus shares in the continued grief of Jillian’s death, and we have been and remain deeply committed to the safety of our students.”

McClatchy News reached out to Taylor’s attorney for comment but did not immediately receive a response Nov. 14. The Law Department of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County declined to comment while the case is ongoing.

Failed prosecution

About seven months before the shooting, the Nashville District Attorney’s Office intended to prosecute Taylor on three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to a statement from the DA’s office and court records.

Three court-appointed doctors said Taylor was incompetent to stand trial, so legally, the judge had to dismiss the case, District Attorney Glenn Funk said. But Taylor also didn’t meet the bar for being involuntarily committed, so he was allowed to walk free.

“This nearly impossible standard impacts public safety,” Funk said. “The law must be altered to accurately balance individual needs with public safety. At the same time Tennessee must provide more beds and staffing resources to handle dangerous individuals.”

Ludwig’s family accuses government employees of wrongly determining Taylor couldn’t stand trial for mental health reasons, adding that someone can’t be found incompetent to stand trial but not so incompetent they can’t be involuntarily committed.

“Otherwise, an avenue exists for violent crimes against persons to be committed by Taylor or persons similar to Taylor to go completely unpunished and/or medically untreated,” the lawsuit says.

State legislators intended to close this loophole with Jillian’s Law, which went into effect in July. The law mandates treatment for certain offenders deemed incompetent to stand trial and restricts them from buying guns in the future.

A few months after Taylor was released from custody, he was found driving a truck that had been carjacked and was arrested again but didn’t show up to his next court date, police said.

An 18-year-old shot dead in a park

Ludwig played six instruments and aspired to have a music career one day, attending the private Christian college in Nashville as a music business major, according to her family.

“Jillian loved her family and friends, and she was a radiant and talented young woman with a very bright future ahead of her,” family said in the lawsuit.

The afternoon of Nov. 7, 2023, the freshman was walking and jogging on a track in Edgehill Memorial Gardens Park near her school when Taylor opened fire on a car across the street, police said.

Ludwig was struck by a stray bullet.

Ludwig’s family accuses police of failing to respond to the scene of the shooting for over an hour until a passerby found the young woman bleeding on the ground in a “very visible area” with a gunshot wound to the head.

Surveillance footage identified Taylor as the accused shooter, and he told detectives upon being arrested that he fired the shots before giving the gun to someone else, police said.

He’s now facing charges of felony murder and tampering with evidence, Davidson County records show.

Ludwig’s parents are accusing the university of failing to warn students that the area their daughter was walking in had high crime activity, as well as the city’s housing authority for allowing Taylor to live there while he had a gun.

The family is seeking damages in excess of $50 million.

This story was originally published November 14, 2024 at 2:35 PM with the headline "Man set free after assault charge kills 18-year-old college student, Tennessee suit says."