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The parents of an 18-year-old freshman at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, who was killed when a stray bullet struck her in the head in 2023, are suing multiple people and entities after their daughter was left dying on a sidewalk for about an hour.
Jillian Ludwig, 18, was fatally struck by a stray bullet while jogging in the Edgehill Community Memorial Gardens Park, just northeast of Belmont’s campus, on November 7, 2023. Shaquille Latrelle Taylor, 29, was arrested in connection with the shooting, which left Ludwig initially hospitalized in critical condition before being pronounced dead on November 8.
The wrongful death lawsuit, filed in Davidson County, claims that Ludwig was killed by the “multiple combined acts of negligence and recklessness” by the defendants, including the city of Nashville, the state of Tennessee, the Nashville Metro Development and Housing Agency (MDHA), Belmont University, state or city employees who examined Taylor’s mental health, a gun supplier that sold a firearm to Taylor, and others.
The lawsuit argues that Belmont University knew or should have known to alert students that the area where Ludwig was running was unsafe, as they had issued “other security warnings … to students in other less dangerous areas.”
The complaint also alleges the Nashville MDHA, which owned the apartment complex where Taylor allegedly fired his illegally possessed weapon, had a duty to “ensure that Taylor was not using a handgun” on its property, shooting into the park where Ludwig was running.
The lawsuit names several additional defendants, including medical experts who examined Taylor’s mental health and determined he was too incompetent to stand trial, but not so incompetent that he qualified to be held in involuntary confinement. The lawsuit claims that Taylor “recklessly discharged a .40-caliber firearm” in the Edgehill Community Memorial Gardens Park area while Ludwig was running, striking her in the head.
The lawsuit alleges that Ludwig’s family has suffered severe emotional distress, loss of companionship, and financial loss as a result of her death, and seeks unspecified damages.