Parents of New Jersey college student killed by stray bullet near Nashville campus can’t comprehend their loss

The New Jersey parents of Jillian Ludwig, a Belmont University freshman who was killed by a stray bullet near the Nashville campus this week, are struggling to process their sudden loss.

“It’s kind of hard to comprehend,” her father, Matt Ludwig, told Good Morning America. “She was thriving so well and doing so well in so many ways, in every way.”

Her mother Jessica Ludwig echoed the sentiment.

“There’s a piece of my heart that was taken from me,” she added. “And I don’t know how to feel that.”

Jillian Ludwig, 18, of Wall Township, N.J., was out for a stroll in Edgehill Community Memorial Gardens Park Tuesday when she was shot around 3:30 p.m., the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said in a news release.

She was found about an hour later with a gunshot wound to her head and rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where she died early Thursday morning.

Police said Shaquille Taylor was trying to shoot at a vehicle across the street, but hit Jillian instead. He was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and evidence tampering after a confidential informant, video evidence and his own confession linked him to the deadly gunfire, authorities said. He’s being held on $280,000 bond.

Police have since said they are working with the prosecutor’s office to modify the charges in light of Jillian’s death.

Taylor has been criminally charged multiple times in the past, including in 2021 when he was charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon. The charges were dismissed earlier this year and he was released after a court-appointed doctors testified that he was incompetent to stand trial.

His most recent run-in with the police came Sept. 21 when officers allegedly found him driving a Ford F-150 pickup truck that had been carjacked by two men wearing ski masks, authorities said in a news release. He was released on $20,000 bond and had a failure-to-appear warrant for skipping his court date earlier this month.

Ludwig’s father told Good Morning America that Taylor should have never been released.

“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,” he said. “The answer should not be to release him back into the streets.”