Woman exercising on trail yells for help, then fatal gunshot heard, Tennessee cops say

Witnesses heard a woman scream, “He’s trying to rape me,” while she was exercising on a trail before a stranger shot and killed her, Tennessee authorities said.

Alyssa Lokits’ accused killer has been identified as 29-year-old Paul Park, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.

Police Chief John Drake said at a news conference broadcast by WKRN the two didn’t know each other.

At about 5:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14, Lokits, 34, was exercising on the Mill Creek Greenway trail when Park “stepped out from between two parked vehicles and began following her at a brisk pace,” police said.

Then, witnesses heard her scream for help, followed by the sound of gunfire, according to police. Park returned to his car with bloody clothes and scratches, while Lokits was found in an overgrown area of the wood line and died at a hospital, according to police.

As the manhunt began, a local resident caught Park and his vehicle at the trailhead on dashcam footage and sent it to police, Drake said. Another break came when a homicide detective recognized Park because of a previous investigation involving his identical twin brother, police said.

Undercover detectives staked out Park’s home and took him into custody once warrants were issued for his arrest the following afternoon, “less than 24 hours after this unimaginable crime,” Drake said.

Park was charged with criminal homicide, Davidson County records show.

A friend of Lokits, Daniel Frazier, told WKRN she was a “wonderful person.”

“There were a lot of people in her life that loved and admired her and this is just a horrible tragedy,” Frazier told the outlet.

Another woman was shot and killed on a Nashville trail in July, McClatchy News previously reported. Jamani Parker, 20, was found with a fatal gunshot wound by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employees, and her 35-year-old boyfriend was later charged with murder, police said.

This story was originally published October 16, 2024 at 12:18 PM with the headline "Woman exercising on trail yells for help, then fatal gunshot heard, Tennessee cops say."