Outstanding police work by Specialized Investigations Division Detectives led to the arrest a short time ago of David Joseph Bush, 23, on an indictment charging him with multiple crimes in connection with last September’s shooting into a car being driven by Davidson County Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles on I-440 west near Nolensville Pike.
Chancellor Myles was struck by broken glass in this road-rage incident, but was otherwise uninjured. Her friend and front seat passenger, a 25-year-old Nashville resident, suffered gunshot wounds to her hand and leg. She was hospitalized at Vanderbilt before being discharged to continue her recovery at home.
The investigation shows that a late model white sedan with glossy paint and a temp tag was speeding and weaving in and out of traffic. The car came upon a Toyota Prius being driven by Myles, which was traveling in the left lane of I-440. The white car passed the Prius on the left shoulder, then swerved into a lane to the right. It slowed down as shots were fired into the passenger side of Myles’ Prius.
Detective Joel Cottrill, who is part of the Non-Lethal Shooting Team, was able to identify Bush as a suspect in this case through ballistic evidence and cell phone data. The ballistic evidence links Bush to the Myles case, as well as to gunfire on February 10 of this year when shots were fired from a white Nissan sedan into a car containing three people on Murfreesboro Pike at Hamilton Crossings. The car was hit by bullets, the victims were not. Ballistic analysis by the MNPD Crime Laboratory shows that the same gun that fired the shots on February 10 also fired the shots last September 8 in the Myles case.
“It is a priority of this police department to identify and then apprehend, in a precision manner, those who are putting innocent persons in our community at risk through their violent behavior, particularly gun violence,” Chief John Drake said. “Technology and science are being used by our detectives to make Nashville safer.”
The indictment in the Myles case, returned Wednesday by the Davidson County Grand Jury, charges Bush with 2 counts of attempted first-degree murder, 6 counts of aggravated assault, and 1 count of reckless endangerment for shooting from a vehicle. He is charged with an additional felony reckless endangerment count for the February 10 shooting case. A Criminal Court judge set bond on the 10-count indictment at $500,000.
As the time of his arrest today, Bush was free on $125,000 bond stemming from his arrest on March 28 of this year on charges of attempted criminal homicide and felony reckless endangerment. In that road-rage shooting case, a 55-year-old man was critically wounded in the head on Murfreesboro Pike near Harding Place.
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David Joseph Bush, 23