An “immensely talented” IT worker was fatally shot by a stranger while exercising on a popular Nashville trail — with witnesses hearing her scream, “Help! He’s trying to rape me,” according to cops.
Vanderbilt University grad Alyssa Lokits, 34, was found with a gunshot wound to the head in an overgrown part of the Mill Creek Greenway around 5:30 p.m. Monday, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.
She had been walking on the popular trail when a stranger stepped out from between two parked cars and started to quickly follow her, police said.
Witnesses heard her screaming “Help! He’s trying to rape me,” before gunfire, cops said.
A suspect, Paul Park, 29, was arrested less than 24 hours later, with images showing him smirking in handcuffs while wearing sunglasses.
He was identified after witnesses saw the killer run with “scratches on his arms and blood on his clothing” to a BMW sedan, which was caught on a local resident’s dashcam, cops said.
The footage showed a partial plate as well as clear images of the suspect — which a homicide detective immediately recognized as Park having worked a suicide case involving his twin brother in December 2021, according to the police statement.
Park was arrested by officers who set up surveillance at his home in Brentwood.
He was charged with murder and expected to appear in court on Thursday, CBS News reported.
Lokits’ heartbroken family called on her killer to be punished “to the fullest extent of the law.”
“Dr. Alyssa Lokits, Ph.D. was a force to be reckoned with—driven, successful, smart, and immensely talented,” her family said in a statement released to WSMV.
“Her fearless spirit and unwavering love inspired all who had the privilege to know her.
She was a friend to everyone, always offering her generosity, joy, and light to those around her.”
Lokits graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2017.
At the time of her death, she worked in IT and lived a short distance from the Greenway.
