Nashville, Tennessee – Less than 24 hours following the tragic shooting of a woman while she was out on a popular trail in Nashville, police detectives have swiftly made an arrest in connection to her murder.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) announced the arrest of Paul Park for the murder of Alyssa Lokits. The swift investigative work from Homicide & Specialized Investigations detectives led to the apprehension of Park, who is 29 years old and a resident of Brentwood.
Lokits, 34, was discovered with a gunshot wound on the Mill Creek Greenway off Old Hickory Boulevard in Nashville. She was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where she succumbed to her injuries.
According to police reports, Lokits was walking in the area of the greenway path when Park emerged from between parked cars and began following her at a rapid pace. Witnesses reported hearing a woman crying out for help and indicating that she was being assaulted, followed by the sound of gunshots.
Witnesses also observed a man, possibly of Asian descent, on top of Lokits before shots were fired. Subsequently, Lokits and Park exited the view of the park’s surveillance camera. However, video footage captured Park returning to his vehicle with visible injuries and bloodstains on his clothing.
Park fled the area in a dark-colored sedan towards Old Hickory Boulevard. A breakthrough in the case occurred when a local witness provided additional video footage captured on a car’s dashcam parked at the trailhead
MNPD Homicide Detective Shannon Forsyth recognized Park as the twin brother of a previous suicide case she had handled, leading to surveillance being set up at Park’s residence. Park was apprehended in Davidson County after exiting his home following the issuance of a homicide arrest warrant.
At present, Park is being interrogated at police headquarters and will soon face booking on the homicide warrant. Lokits, a graduate from Vanderbilt University in 2017, worked as a graduate student in neuroscience at the Hamm Lab.
