A 38-year-old Nashville man is wanted after police say he beat a former girlfriend with a hammer and left her with extensive head and face injuries, a short time after officers drove her home following her protective order. Ross Peterson remains at large as of Monday, with Metropolitan Nashville Police Department detectives unable to locate him since the attack two days earlier.
According to WSMV, the violence unfolded on Saturday morning. Officers first responded to the woman's home a few hours before 7:15 a.m. after she reported that Peterson, with whom she shares a prior dating history, had sent multiple threatening text messages and shown up at her doorstep, where the two argued. Police helped her secure both an order of protection and a harassment warrant, which was issued at 6:15 a.m. that same morning, then drove her home. At 7:15 a.m., officers responded again and found her injured.
Peterson returned to her residence a short time after officers left the property, police said. The woman reported seeing him appear to vandalize her car, and when she went outside to confront him, police say he attacked her with a hammer. Responding officers found her lying in her backyard with extensive head and face injuries and recovered the hammer at the scene, collecting it as evidence. Peterson is also alleged to have taken her cell phone before fleeing.
Charges Mount as Search Continues
MNPD issued arrest warrants on October 17 charging Peterson with aggravated assault, harassment and theft of property, with the aggravated assault and theft warrants issued later that Saturday morning following the attack. Police have not located him since. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 615-742-7463 or the Metro Nashville Department of Emergency Communications at 615-862-8600.
Peterson is currently on probation for a felony methamphetamine possession conviction out of Williamson County, a detail that adds significant legal weight to his situation if he is caught. Tennessee Code § 40-35-303 covers probation eligibility, sentencing and conditions, according to WomensLaw.org. Grebert Law PLLC says Tennessee penalties for methamphetamine possession with intent to distribute vary by classification and threshold, while manufacturing methamphetamine carries an 8-to-30-year range, according to Grebert Law PLLC.
What the New Charges Could Mean
The aggravated assault allegation alone carries serious statutory risk. Tennessee Code § 39-13-102 classifies aggravated assault involving a deadly weapon or serious bodily injury as a Class C felony, punishable by 3 to 15 years in prison and fines up to $15,000, according to Justia. Separately, violating the order of protection he was already subject to is its own Class A misdemeanor, carrying up to 11 months and 29 days in jail and a fine of $100 to $2,500, as outlined by N. Cate Law. Tennessee also maintains mandatory arrest policies for order-of-protection violations, and courts can extend such orders for up to five additional years.
A Pattern Nashville Officials Are Still Trying to Break
The case lands amid an ongoing statewide reckoning with domestic violence. The YWCA Nashville & Middle Tennessee notes that Metro police respond to a domestic violence call roughly every 20 minutes across Davidson County and that Tennessee ranks seventh nationally for the rate of women murdered by male perpetrators. Over the roughly 12 years since the original report was released in 2013, more than 100 people were killed in domestic violence homicides in Davidson County, according to WPLN News, which reported that the police department would hire its first gun-dispossession investigator in 2026.
Those reforms have included Tennessee's 2024 Debbie and Marie Domestic Violence Protection Act, which made the state the first in the nation to mandate GPS tracking for people charged with violent domestic felonies, alerting victims via a mobile app if an offender gets too close. The law is named for two Middle Tennessee women murdered in 2021 by a domestic partner who had been released on bail. It remains unclear whether GPS monitoring or any active surveillance conditions were requested for Peterson following the harassment warrant issued hours before the alleged hammer attack.
Hoodline has previously covered how Tennessee's survivor protections work, as well as the financial burden GPS monitoring can place on victims in a separate Nashville case. For now, police have not said where Peterson may be, and his exact probation terms in Williamson County have not been detailed publicly. Anyone who spots him is urged to call authorities rather than approach him directly.
