Thomas Novelly

tnovelly@tennessean.com

Over the course of three days this week, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation arrested 41 individuals, 14 of whom were from Nashville, connected with human trafficking, the TBI announced Friday morning.

"This week I learned that we are only scratching the surface," TBI Director Mark Gwyn said at a news conference. "This is our most significant operation to date."

More than half of the 34 men specified that they wanted to have sex with minors, the TBI said. Six women and one juvenile also were arrested.

According to a TBI news release, those arrested include David Shepard, 56, a Hunters Lane High School teacher, and Gary Rashad Canty, 20, a former Vanderbilt University football player from Riverdale, Ga., who red shirted his freshman year in 2014 and then left the team for medical issues the next year. He never played in a game for Vanderbilt. Canty was a three-star prospect, according to 247Sports, and ranked as 180th nationally among wide receivers.

Joe Bass, a Metro Nashville Public Schools district spokesman, confirmed that Shepard was a teacher and also said that as soon as he came to them with his misconduct, they took action.

"He self-reported and we placed him on administrative leave immediately," Bass said. "He has been a science teacher at Hunters Lane since 2014."

During the operation, undercover agents posted ads on Backpage.com. Some agents posed as underage girls. According to the TBI, 485 men responded to the ads posted and more than 5,300 responded to the ads through texts or phone.

Assistant Special Agent in Charge Margie Quin said during the news conference that they were overwhelmed and disturbed by the amount of responses the false ads received. Quin said that on the first day of the operation on Tuesday afternoon, agents received more than 216 responses in just seven hours.

“Even with as many of these operations that we have conducted across the state, it’s still shocking that half of the men responding to these ads wanted to pay to have sex with a minor,” Quin said. “We’re working toward helping victims of trafficking and taking these predators off the streets.”

House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, joined Gwyn and the multiple special agents at the news conference. Harwell said she witnessed the TBI's sting operation and that the arrests should serve as a message to those looking to promote human trafficking in Tennessee.

"I had the chance to see the operation from the inside on Wednesday," Harwell said. "While I was there I saw a man get arrested for wanting to have sex with an underage woman. To those scouring the web or apps in the search for sex with our state’s children, let me say this: Be warned.”

Reach Thomas Novelly at 615-818-7205 and on Twitter @TomNovelly.

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