JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – A Tennessee man faces murder charges after police say he deliberately mowed down a pregnant woman and her toddler son, killing both, along with the woman’s unborn child.
William David Phillips, 33, of Jefferson City, has been charged with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, according to the Jefferson City Police Dept.
Police say Phillips chose his victims at random, first driving into a 61-year-old man named Tillman Gunter, then slamming into 30-year-old Sierra Wilson Cahoon and her son less than a mile away, according to WBIR. Cahoon, her unborn child and her son Nolan were found dead at the scene in Jefferson City, located about 30 miles northeast of Knoxville
“I ran up here, and I just saw the guy, he was trying to get out of the car and the lady and the baby in the stroller were next to the building,” witness Bill Ray Jones told WBIR, adding that he heard Phillips yelling that the “government told him to do it.”
Jefferson City police said a preliminary investigation found that it was “an intentional act of violence toward randomly chosen pedestrians.”
According to an arrest warrant obtained by WBIR, “a voice told (Phillips) that he needed to go kill the meth addicts so he began driving very fast,” and “the voice told him that the baby stroller had meth in it so he intentionally drove into” into the mother and her child.
Police arrested Phillips after finding his vehicle lodged in an ornamental fish store.
A GoFundMe page has been created for the family of the victims.
