MNPD: Man arrested for deadly crash along Murfreesboro Pike, causing closure ‘into the early evening’

NASHVILLE/LA VERGNE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A man has been arrested in connection with a deadly crash along Murfreesboro Pike Friday afternoon, leading to an hours-long closure. A social media post from the La Vergne Police Department from around 2:20 p.m. said that Murfreesboro Road "heading into Antioch" is shut down due to a crash. The crash happened on Murfreesboro Road near Waldron Road. A spokesperson for the Metro Nashville Police Department initially told News 2 an officer was involved in the crash, but they have not said how. At 4:28 p.m. Friday, the MNPD posted a photo to X and said the roadway would be closed "into the early evening" due to an investigation into the deadly crash. Police said the driver of a pickup truck, which had been reported stolen, was driving the wrong way along Murfreesboro Pike when it crashed with a white sedan. The woman driving the white sedan died, and the truck driver was transported to an area hospital with non-critical injuries, per the post. At 4:40 p.m., the MNPD announced that a warrant for criminal homicide "will be sworn out this evening" for 52-year-old Ray Eugene Padgett for the woman's death. Shortly after 5 p.m., MNPD spokesperson Don Aaron provided a timeline of events. Aaron said the chain of events leading up to the crash happened around 9:30 a.m. Friday morning when a Ford F250 was stolen out of a North Nashville parking lot. The owner, using tracking technology, tracked the stolen truck to an alley off St. Louis Street. When the suspect tried to flee, he allegedly slammed the truck into reverse and struck the vehicle's actual owner. Aaron said police then tracked the truck to Madison, where officers first laid eyes on the truck, and the MNPD's aerial unit began to monitor the truck. Aaron explained that initially, authorities were monitoring to find the best time to move in and apprehend him, but that changed when he entered the area of Murfreesboro Pike and Old Murfreesboro Pike and he allegedly came directly at an unmarked MNPD Ford Escape. Aaron said he made "very violent contact" with the Escape and "drove that police SUV with an undercover detective in it into another vehicle in a neighboring parking lot." That MNPD detective ran from the vehicle, and the truck fled from the area. The pickup truck then traveled along Murfreesboro Pike with MNPD detectives in pursuit when, shortly before 2 p.m., he crossed into the wrong lane and — as a vehicle was turning off of Murfreesboro Pike — "slammed into that innocent motorist" before coming to rest in a ditch, Aaron said. The "innocent motorist" was only identified as a Nashville woman in her mid-20s. Padgett has about 20 convictions, including some felony convictions, from Sumner, Putnam, Davidson, Fentress and Wilson Counties, per Aaron. Those convictions were related to burglaries, theft counts and other counts.