Parents of Jillian Ludwig, the college student who died in Tennessee after being hit in the head by a stray bullet, have publicly questioned why the suspect was not in custody at the time their daughter was shot.
Ludwig, who was a student at Belmont University in Nashville, was fatally shot on the track at Edgehill Community Memorial Gardens Park on Tuesday, according to police. She was transferred to the hospital in critical condition and succumbed to her injuries Thursday.
Shaquille Taylor, 29, has been charged with aggravated assault and evidence tampering in connection with the shooting. He said that he unintentionally struck Ludwig when he was targeting a vehicle.
{snip}
“Anticipated modified charges in this case would result at the grand jury level. He remains jailed in lieu of $280,000 bond,” the police said.
Taylor was charged in 2021 for firing a gun into a vehicle with two toddlers inside, but he was released after court-appointed doctors deemed him incompetent to stand trial.
Mentally incompetent people can’t stand trial under federal and state law.
“A repeat criminal who’s deemed to have mental health issues should be dealt with in a facility or in some way that deals with those issues,” Matt Ludwig, Jillian’s father, told Good Morning America during an interview that aired Saturday. “The answer should not be to release him back into the streets.”
Court documents revealed that Taylor mentally functions at a kindergarten level as he developed pneumonia when he was born which led to a brain infection, according to NBC News.
- {snip}
Taylor was arrested again in a grocery store parking lot a few months before Ludwig’s shooting for auto theft and he was released on a $20,000 bond.
“It’s kind of hard to comprehend,” Matt Ludwig said of his daughter’s death. “She was thriving so well and doing so well in so many ways, in every way.”
* Original Article:
https://themessenger.com/news/jillian-ludwig-parents-belmont-university-killed-stray-bullet-shaquille-taylor-suspect-free-to-walk-streets