A 34-year-old man was tased and arrested after police say he terrorized a stretch of downtown Nashville while naked, allegedly groping a woman who tried to help him and smashing a car windshield with his elbow before lying down in an active roadway. The man has been identified as David Katz, and a judge is scheduled to review his case on November 20.
Multiple 911 Calls Near Fourth Avenue
Dispatchers received multiple calls Thursday reporting a naked man acting aggressively and obscenely near Fourth Avenue North and Commerce Street, according to an affidavit cited by WSMV. The man, later identified as 34-year-old David Katz, is accused of sexually battering a woman and triggering a chaotic scene in the heart of downtown, as WKRN News 2 also reported.
The affidavit alleges that when a woman approached to help him, Katz forcibly grabbed her head and inserted his tongue into her mouth without her consent, per the same account. Investigators say he then climbed onto the hood of a man's car and used his elbow to crack the windshield, according to the affidavit.
Surveillance Video and a Taser Deployment
Police said surveillance footage captured the man's erratic behavior, including the alleged battery, the vehicle damage, and Katz walking into and lying down in an active roadway, the station's report notes. When an officer confronted him, police said Katz became hostile and advanced aggressively toward the officer, prompting the officer to deploy a Taser before placing him in handcuffs.
A judge is scheduled to review Katz's case on November 20, according to the affidavit-based reporting. WSMV reported that Katz faces seven charges, with bond amounts set for six; Public Indecency has no bond.
Other Recent Public-Exposure Cases in Nashville
The incident follows a separate case earlier in October in which police arrested 56-year-old Tyrone Gray after a patron at Centennial Park alerted officers that he was masturbating in his truck, according to WSMV. Gray, already a registered sex offender, was charged with indecent exposure and violating sex-offender rules; Youth Services detectives told officers Gray was prohibited from being at parks with playgrounds or facilities likely to be frequented by juveniles, per that report.
Earlier reports from WSMV also described a Nashville man accused of exposing himself in front of children and urinating on a downtown sidewalk in August, and another man accused of exposing and inappropriately touching himself outside a woman's window in July.
Residents looking to track the Katz case can check the Davidson County Criminal Court Clerk's office for updated bond information, since the Davidson County Sheriff's Office notes that bond amounts may be changed by the court after they are initially posted. Criminal dockets for Davidson County are posted daily by the Clerk of Court of General Sessions in the Justice A.A. Birch Building, according to the Davidson County General Sessions Court.
