NASHVILLE, Tn. (EYT) – A 21-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the murder of a Clarion University graduate who was fatally shot while driving to work in Nashville on December 3.
Metro Nashville Police Department said Devaunte L. Hill, 21, is in custody for the murder of Nashville nurse and former Clarion University student Caitlyn Kaufman.
MNPD SWAT members arrested Hill on Friday at 6:15 a.m. at his East Nashville apartment. He is being charged with criminal homicide.
According to the Tennessean, Caitlyn Kaufman, a 26-year-old Butler County native, was found dead in her vehicle on December 3 on the shoulder of I-440W and most likely died within moments of being shot in her left shoulder.
Metro Nashville Police homicide detective Chris Dickerson reported that police discovered the suspect fired at least six shots into Kaufman’s car between 6:05 p.m. and 6:10 p.m. as she drove to work on I-440, heading for her job at the Intensive Care Unit at Saint Thomas West Hospital.
Kaufman was discovered, deceased in her SUV, by a Metro Nashville officer who stopped around 9:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 3, to investigate why her vehicle was parked on the shoulder of the highway, believing it was a single-vehicle crash, according to police.
At the time, Dickerson said a motive in the killing was still unknown.
A Davidson County Medical Examiner determined Kaufman was killed by a single gunshot that entered her left shoulder and likely died within 15 seconds, with no time to even call 9-1-1.
In an earlier interview, Caitlyn’s mother, Diane Kaufman, said her daughter didn’t have any enemies and must have been at “the wrong place at the wrong time.”
According to her family, Kaufman dedicated her life to helping others and was living her dream of becoming a nurse. She had been working on the front lines of the pandemic, treating COVID-19 patients in the ICU.
“That’s what we can’t understand, how there’s somebody out there that could do this to her,” said Kristin Hertweck, Kaufman’s cousin.
Kaufman, a native of Chicora in Butler County, graduated in 2016 from Clarion University of Pennsylvania and was a member of the women’s swimming and diving program.
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