Notre Dame Employee & PhD Student Charged With Murdering Ex-Boyfriend

Nijinsky Dix

Notre Dame University Nijinsky Dix

Nijinsky Dix, a 37-year-old Chicago PhD student and employee of the University of Notre Dame, was charged with murder after she shot and killed her ex-boyfriend, Terry Hickman, in Washington, D.C., according to court documents and a police press release. A press release from the Metropolitan Police Department states that on November 14, officers responded to a residence on the 1000 block of 4th Street, Southwest, at around 5:26 p.m. following reports of gunshots.

The press release stated that responding officers found the male victim, identified as Terry Hickman, 44, who had suffered gunshot wounds. “DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services responded to the scene and determined that the victim displayed no signs consistent with life,” it stated. The press release added that officers arrested Nijinsky Latassia Dix, 37, and charged her with second-degree murder while armed. The charge has since been modified to first-degree murder, court documents show.


A Witness Told Investigators That Dix Had Been Stalking Hickman After Their Relationship Ended in May

Court documents described that when officers arrived on the scene, they found Dix “kneeling at [Hickman’s] feet with her right hand raised and her left hand between her legs.” Officers discovered that she was holding a gun in her left hand and asked her to drop it, which she did, and she was then placed in handcuffs.

Police officers also found that Dix was on her cellphone with someone who identified herself as Dix’s mother, court documents show. She said that Dix had called her and said, “He pushed me, and I shot him.” Dix was brought to the hospital, where doctors said she spoke of back pain and reported “a period of being blacked out and a loss of memory.” Court documents also showed that the doctor said there was no sign of physical trauma or indication that Dix had been assaulted.

Hickman’s next-of-kin spoke to police officers and said that Dix was Hickman’s ex-girlfriend and she had been “stalking” him, according to court records. The next-of-kin added that Hickman and Dix had dated casually for about three months and it ended in May 2020. Dix, who is from Jacksonville, Florida, “somehow found out where [Hickman] resided,” court documents state.

During Dix’s interview with detectives after her discharge from the hospital, court documents state that when she was shown a photo of Hickman, she started crying and said, “Get it away from me.” She then said, “Please make sure he is gone, make sure he is not near me, make sure Terry not near me.” She also said, “You don’t do people you love like that, that’s not love, he can’t do people like that, you don’t do people you love like that, I’m sorry.”


Dix Is a PhD Student at the University of Illinois in Chicago & Is an Employee of the University of Notre Dame

Dix works at the University of Notre Dame, where she is employed as the director of TRiO Programs which helps “marginalized students attain access to postsecondary education,” according to a bio attached to her interview with Best Colleges. Her LinkedIn page states that she’s held that position since August 2018, prior to which she was the assistant director of the program.

Her Notre Dame bio adds that she’s also in the middle of pursuing a PhD in gender studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, after having obtained a masters degree in applied social science at Florida A&M University. The University of Notre Dame told CBS Chicago in a statement that the school is “aware of her arrest and will cooperate with law enforcement as appropriate.”

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