A parolee with a long criminal history is facing multiple homicide-related charges after a wrong-way crash k!lled a 23-year-old Nigerian woman, Oluwalayomi Fadero, in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Nigerian political news
Fadero recently completed her degree and was pursuing an accelerated nursing programme at another institution before her death.
Investigators said the series of events began around 9:30 a.m. Friday, March 20, 2026 when 52-year-old Ray Eugene Padgett allegedly stole a Ford truck from an auto lot in North Nashville.
The owner told police the vehicle was equipped with a tracking device and they began following it.
Around 12:10 p.m., authorities said the lot’s owner tracked the truck to an alley off St. Louis Street.
Padgett reportedly put the truck in reverse and rammed the vehicle the owner was in before fleeing the area.
Using that information, officers began monitoring Padgett in Madison with undercover vehicles.
However, the MNPD said the situation quickly escalated when Padgett rammed into an unmarked police SUV with a plainclothes detective inside at the connector road between Murfreesboro Pike and Old Murfreesboro Pike, near Nashville International Airport.
That officer was forced to get out and run, described by law enforcement as being in clear and immediate danger, so a pursuit began.
About five minutes later, Padgett allegedly drove the wrong way on Murfreesboro Pike at speeds approaching 80 mph, heading toward La Vergne.
That is when, officials said, he crashed into the driver’s side of a Hyundai Elantra sedan as the Nigerian woman was turning from Murfreesboro Pike onto Hickory Woods Drive on her way home from work. She was k!lled.