3 Doors Down bassist arrested on vehicular homicide charges
The bass player for the rock band 3 Doors Down was arrested on vehicular homicide charges Friday night after police say he ran another driver off Interstate 40, killing him.
Robert Todd Harrell, 41, remained jailed Saturday evening on $100,000 bond on charges of vehicular homicide while intoxicated, drug possession, violating implied consent laws and bringing contraband into a jail, according to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office. Harrell was a founding member of the Mississippi band, which in recent years had relocated to Nashville. Harrell’s listed address is in Mt. Juliet.
Metro police said Harrell was drunk and behind the wheel of his Cadillac CTS Friday night on Interstate 40 when he clipped a Ford F-150, sending it out of control. The pickup hit a guardrail, flew down an embankment and flipped over. Police said the driver of the truck, Paul Howard Shoulders Jr., 47, was thrown from the truck and later died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
He was not wearing a seat belt.
Police caught up with Harrell about a quarter-mile down the road, where he had hit a retaining wall. Investigators said he flunked a sobriety test and admitted to drinking hard cider and taking the prescription painkiller Lortab and the anti-anxiety drug Xanax. Later, police said, they found eight Xanax pills and 28 prescription painkiller pills — 24 Oxycodones and four Oxymorphones — when they booked him at the jail.
On Saturday, 3 Doors Down released a statement of condolences on its website for Shoulders.
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Paul Howard Shoulders Jr. Our hearts and prayers go out to his family and friends at this difficult time,” the statement said.
The band is scheduled to play an all-acoustic set May 4 at War Memorial Auditorium and was gearing up to go on tour in July.
Harrell is scheduled to appear in court Thursday morning.
TENNsee
