Televised news reports on Wednesday show the father of Caitlyn Kaufman being removed from a Tennessee courtroom after he lunged at the defendants. Two men are standing trial for killing her during a possible road rage incident in December 2020.

Rick Kaufman appears to lunge at defendants James Cowan, 29, and Devaunte Hill, 23, both of Tennessee, on Tuesday, Nov. 15, as they were led into a courtroom in handcuffs for a motions hearing before Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County Court Judge Angelita Blackshear Dalton. The jury trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 23 next year.

Video footage shows security personnel restraining Rick Kaufman and removing him from the courtroom, and his wife, Diane Kaufman, crying while seated in the courtroom.

The Nashville District Attorney General’s office is not taking action against Rick Kaufman, and he will be allowed to return Thursday when the motions hearing will resume.

A victim witness coordinator from the attorney general’s office will remain with the Kaufman family for the rest of the hearing, according to an office spokesman.

The judge hasn’t ruled on any of the motions presented Tuesday, and isn’t expected to rule on those, or motions made Thursday, for at least a few days.

A grand jury in Tennessee indicted Cowan and Hill on first-degree murder charges in Kaufman’s death.

Kaufman, 26, was shot and killed on Dec. 3, 2020, while she traveled to St. Thomas West Hospital, where she worked in the intensive care unit.

In a hearing in January, a witness and investigators said Kaufman may have cut off the defendants' car in traffic as they traveled along Interstate 440 in Nashville. Investigators said her car was struck by at least six bullets and her rear driver's side window was shot out.

Caitlyn Marie Kaufman, a 26-year-old nurse, was fatally shot on her way to work at a Nashville hospital in 2020. She was 2012 Butler Senior High School graduate. Submitted photo

A medical examiner in Nashville said she was struck by a bullet in the shoulder, and she likely died just minutes after being shot.

According to investigators, a police officer found Kaufman's Mazda SUV along the guardrail three hours after the shooting and discovered her body in the driver's seat.

Cowan was arrested Jan. 12, 2021, in the Antioch neighborhood 12 miles southeast of Nashville, authorities said, where they discovered a “substantial” number of Xanax pills and fentanyl as well as $2,100 in cash and at least one handgun.

Cowan, who is identified in the indictment as also going by the pseudonym “James Edward Lillard,” was previously convicted of aggravated robbery in 2011, and could face additional jail time if convicted because of a probation violation.

Hill was arrested Dec. 11, 2020, and initially implicated himself in Kaufman's murder, according to authorities, but has since maintained his innocence.

After graduating from Butler High School in 2012, Kaufman went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in athletic training from Clarion University and a nursing degree from Butler County Community College.