One of the former escapees from the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center has been named a suspect in a north Nashville shooting, leaving those who have spent years dealing with the juvenile justice system to say it’s a system that isn’t working.
Officials with Metro Nashville Police said 19-year-old Kuyvonta Cain shot into a car full of innocent people that included a 6-year-old and a woman - whose head was grazed by one of the flying bullets.
Police said Cain had been in an argument with two men driving a red Hyundai. They think Cain saw the victim's car, mistook it for the other one and opened fire.
Cain was also one of the teens who escaped the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center two years ago. He was on the run for a month before he was captured.
“And then you release the kids back into the environment which created the problem with no service to the family that created the problem. It’s a department of children services issue, it’s an inadequate children services issues, it’s dollars and cents issue,” said attorney Jim Todd who spent years as a juvenile prosecutor in Davidson County.
Since he turned 18 years old, Cain has been arrested six different times and faced charges ranging from felony aggravated assault, to drug possession, to attempted criminal homicide.
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However, his history with authorities dates back further than that. Cain was one of the few escapees from Woodland Hills who managed to elude officers for more than a month. He was 17 yearsold at the time and charged as a juvenile.
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In January 2016, he was charged with attempted murder and aggravated robbery and once again led police on another hunt before being taken into custody. However, that case was dropped after the victim stopped cooperating.
Cain was arrested in September, 2015 on charges of aggravated robbery and assault. Those charges were reduced to misdemeanors and he received a 90 days sentence.
In April 2015, Cain was arrested on a felony aggravated assault charge after his father told police Cain pulled a pistol on him during an argument. That charge was dismissed in court.
Cain faced four felony aggravated assault charges after the shooting on Liberia Street last week.
