Wedgewood area residents voice concerns at public meeting following murder
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — (UPDATE 8:45 p.m.) Community members voiced their safety concerns at a public meeting one week after a murder at a condo in the Wedgewood area.
Tiffany Ferguson, a 23-year-old nurse at St. Thomas-West, was stabbed to death inside her condo on Feb. 28.
Residents expressed their concerns Tuesday at a public meeting at the Midtown Precinct, saying Ferguson's murder is part of a greater neighborhood problem.
Police called Ferguson's murder a random act of violence.
Ashley Elizabeth Graham said thinking about that night is especially haunting, because she shared a wall with the Ferguson and was sleeping right next door when it happened.
“It’s not that you think nothing will ever happen to you, we live in a world of darkness, but to wake up to that and to do everything right and to think that one mistake, the cost of that mistake is your life,” Graham said.
Graham is one of dozens of neighbors who came out to Metro Police’s Midtown Precinct Tuesday night for a community meeting on security.
Several people spoke up saying the events of last week are a reflection of greater issues impacting that community that have gone unaddressed for years now.
“This area is a very high traffic area,” said District 17 Metro Council member Colby Sledge. “It's an area where there are a lot of folks who have been transient in nature or homeless. As this investigation goes on, it’s a couple of issues that may overlap, or they may not.”
“I think a lot of what happened here tonight is people expressing their fear, and that we now feel like we have to lock ourselves in our homes,” said Wedgewood resident Angela Ball.
Metro Police promised greater patrols last week to address their safety concerns, but many residents claim they haven't noticed anything different.
“We’re there, I don’t know what else more to say,” said MNPD Commander Kay Lokey. “We have officers in unmarked cars. We have officers in patrol cars. We have the zone officers there. We're there. We're in their neighborhood. We're up and down the streets.”
Police said there have been an "overwhelming" amount of tips from CrimeStoppers in the Feguson case.
