Nashville nurse shot dead on her way to hospital shift
12/07/2020 11:16 am PST
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TCD) --
Homicide detectives are seeking leads in the fatal shooting of a nurse on a Nashville highway on the night of December 3.
A Nashville Parks and Recreation officer encountered a Mazda CX-5 SUV stopped on the guardrail on the right shoulder of Interstate 440 about 8:52 p.m. Thursday. Metro Nashville Police said the officer saw that bullets had been fired into the vehicle.
The lone occupant of the vehicle died at the scene. She was identified as 26-year-old Caitlyn Marie Kaufman. Metro Nashville Police said Kaufman was traveling to work at St. Thomas West Hospital, where she was employed as a nurse.
Police said her shift at the hospital was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Thursday. Detectives believe she was shot between 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
The gunfire that killed Nashville nurse Caitlyn Kaufman, 26, on I-440 Thursday night likely occurred btwn 6 p.m. & 6:30 p.m. She was on the way to work at St. Thomas West Hospital for a shift that began at 7 p.m. See unusual activity on I-440 Thur evening? Pls call 615-742-7463. https://t.co/9OVWugzast
@MNPDNashville
WZTV-TV reports Kaufman's death marks the third St. Thomas West Hospital nurse killed since 2016. Four days before Christmas Day 2016, 27-year-old Ashley Brown, a scrub tech at St. Thomas West Hospital, was found at trash disposal site on Freightliner Drive. Her death was later ruled a homicide, the autopsy report stating she died of multiple blunt force injuries and strangulation. To date, her killer has not been found.
Two months after Brown's death, an ICU nurse at St. Thomas was found dead inside her Wedgewood Park condo. Tiffany Ferguson, 22, was killed by Christopher McLawhorn in what was believed to be a random act of violence.
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