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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — Tennessee state lawmakers and local advocates are calling for change after Metro Police say a repeat offender is on the run after killing a man in Midtown over the weekend. Adrian Cameron Jr., 19, was out on bond with an ankle monitor while awaiting trial for a 2021 murder at the time of the shooting. Metro Police report the robbery-related homicide happened around 2:30 a.m. Saturday in an alleyway outside a music studio on Hayes Street. Police say Cameron Jr. was identified as one of three suspects involved in the shooting that killed 32-year-old reported rapper Chris Cheeks. Verna Wyatt with TN Voices for Victims, angered after learning the teen was out on a $100,000 bond with an ankle monitor while waiting for trial for the September 2021 murder of Josh Evans. Police say data from that ankle monitor was turned off shortly after Saturday's shooting. The DA's office says they've now filed a motion to revoke Cameron's bond. However, Wyatt says what we are currently doing is not working. "They're going to keep doing what they're doing until there's an intervention and they're taken off the street," said Wyatt. "We've got to start looking at what is the seriousness of the crime, number one, and what is their background, what have they done in the past." Hoping to address the issues surrounding repeat crimes, State Representative John Gillespie says cases like this happen far too often. "It's unacceptable. We are failing the public. The government is failing the public in this regard. And we have to do better," said Gillespie. Gillespie says Tennessee has soft policies that have been in place for decades, and he'd like to see more "common sense" from city leaders, as well as a crackdown on juvenile crime. Gillespie has a few bills working their way through the legislation, including stricter pre-trial monitoring. FOX 17 News has an investigative piece this Thursday with more on this case, as well as other similar cases, where we take a deeper look at repeat offenders and the court system. Get reports like this and all the news of the day in Middle Tennessee delivered to your inbox each morning with the FOX 17 News Daily Newsletter.Put a leg monitor or an ankle monitor on them and somehow you think that's going to somehow take them out of their normal? Which is violence and chaos. It's ridiculous. It's got to stop," said Wyatt.
Judges, especially juvenile judges, have a very big role to play in this," said Gillespie. "In fact, it takes a DA and a juvenile court judge to concurrently agree to send someone to adult court. I think there are too many checks on that."