“What kind of world do we live in where a girl just taking a jog on a sunny day is in life-threatening danger by a man who should not have been on the streets,” Jillian Ludwig’s mother, Jessica, tells Inside Edition.
The parents of a college student who was killed by a stray bullet are speaking out. They are not only heartbroken but angry that the suspect was set free months after a similar crime.
Jillian Ludwig, 18, was a promising young musician who loved to perform. Jillian moved from her New Jersey home to Nashville, Tennessee, to study music business at Belmont University.
She was struck by a stray bullet in the head while jogging at a park just off campus. She died two days later in the hospital.
Her parents, Jessica and Matt, cannot make sense of what happened.
“What kind of world do we live in where a girl just taking a jog on a sunny day is in life-threatening danger by a man who should not have been on the streets,” Jessica tells Inside Edition.
Police say the shot was fired by 29-year-old Shaquille Taylor.
Surveillance video shows the suspect opening fire at a passing car. What’s angering Jillian’s parents is last April, Taylor was arrested for shooting at a woman and her two children, but the charges were dropped after he was deemed incompetent to stand trial.
“It’s tragic, and it’s unacceptable,” Jessica says.
Jillian’s parents believed the system failed to protect their daughter.
“He was known to be violent, he has a history, the answer is not to just release him back onto the street so that he could do more harm, just that’s what happened,” Matt says.
Jessica and Matt are left to plan a funeral for their beloved daughter.
“She brought joy to everyone who knew her. She was just a pure light,” Jessica says.
