A Korean-American man has been arrested in the murder of a woman who was out for a walk.
A 29-year-old Korean-American, Paul Park has been arrested and charged with murder in Nashville, Tennessee, authorities said on October 15.
The victim, 34-year-old Alyssa Lokits, was fatally shot on October 14 on a path along the Mill Creek Greenway in southeast Nashville, according to the Nashville Police Department.
She was walking on the trail as usual at the time of the incident.
According to witnesses, Lokits shouted, “Help me, a man is trying to rape me,” just before the shooting. The witness heard a woman’s screams and called police, who later found Lokits shot to death near the walking trail.
She was found with a gunshot wound to the head and was rushed to the hospital, where she died, according to local media outlet WTVF.
Immediately after the murder, the Nashville Police Department began working to identify the suspect based on witnesses and dashcam footage from cars parked in the neighborhood. One car’s dashcam footage showed the suspect following closely behind Lokits.
It also shows the suspect returning to his BMW shortly after the incident and wiping his hands on his bloodied clothing. The Nashville Police Department’s Homicide Division identified Park as the suspect based on witness statements and video evidence.
Detective Shannon Forsyth, a homicide detective who worked on a suicide case three years ago, was instrumental in Park’s arrest. Detective Forsyth realized that the suspect in the video was the identical twin of a suicide she worked on in December 2021.
The Nashville Police Department quickly obtained a court-issued warrant and set out to arrest Park, who lived in Brentwood, a neighborhood in south Nashville. The Nashville Police said they surrounded the residence beforehand and arrested Park as he drove away. Park was taken into custody at the Davidson County Detention Center and is scheduled to make an appearance in court on October 17.
According to WTVF, the victim graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2017 and has since worked in the IT cybersecurity industry.
BY HYOUNGJAE KIM, HOONSIK WOO [kim.ian@koreadaily.com]
