Tennessee police arrested a suspect on Tuesday, a day after a woman was killed in a seemingly random attack.
Alyssa Lokits, 34, died shortly after she was found on the Mill Creek Greenway on the Old Hickory Trailhead in Antioch. Witnesses heard a woman screaming, “Help! He’s trying to rape me,” before gunshots rang out, according to WZTV.
Lokits was exercising on the trail when Paul Park, 29, allegedly emerged from between two cars and followed Lokits. Some of the witnesses said they possibly also saw an Asian man on top of Lokits before the shooting.
Though cameras did not capture the deadly altercation, WZTV reported that park surveillance footage showed Park returning to a car with blood on his clothes and scratches on his arms. Additionally, someone’s dashcam allegedly filmed Park and his car.
Metropolitan Nashville police said detective Shannon Forsyth recognized Park as the man in the dashcam footage because she worked on a suicide investigation involving his twin brother in 2021. Additionally, a witness also gave police Park’s license plate number.
WSMV reported that Lokits was shot in the head. Residents told the news outlet that she was relatively new to the neighborhood. Lokits had a PhD in neuroscience from Vanderbilt University. She worked in IT at the time of her death.
Park was apprehended at his home in Brentwood and charged with criminal homicide. His arrest came less than 24 hours after Lokits’ slaying.
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[Feature Photo: Davidson County Jail; Vanderbilt University]
