Downtown Gainesville shooting kills 2

Crime scene
Fer Gregory via Shutterstock

An Ocala man was arrested Sunday following an early-morning shooting that killed two people and injured one in downtown Gainesville.

According to a Gainesville Police Department (GPD) report, officers arrested Ja’zier Antonio Myers, 20, of Ocala and charged him with three counts of homicide murder in the first degree premeditated and one count of attempted homicide murder in the first degree premeditated.

Ja’zier Antonio Myers
Courtesy of Alachua County Jail Ja’zier Antonio Myers

GPD officers were conducting crowd control around 900 W. University Avenue at 2:42 a.m. when shots were fired. Two victims died from their injuries.

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According to the report, one victim, who later died, was in front of Checkers at 912 W. University Ave.  A second victim, who was found in the same area, flagged down officers. The third victim, who was shot first, was found dead in front of Bodytech at 806 W. University Ave.

Surveillance video showed Myers reportedly walking near the third victim around 2:40 a.m. and shooting the victim in the head as they passed Bodytech.

The second victim, who flagged down officers, said he was ordering food at Checkers and he heard an argument behind him. He looked around and saw Myers shoot the victim. The second victim ran and was then shot.

Officers located Myers in a nearby car after witnesses in the vehicle said the alleged gunman got into the vehicle. When officers approached the car, Myers go out and dropped the gun. After being read his Miranda rights, Myers denied the shooting, adding he had no recollection of what happened and was possibly drugged.

One of the deceased victims was homeless and the other was from Ocala. The injured victim was reportedly in stable condition.

Myers is being held in the Alachua County Jail.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with information from a July 31 press release.

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James

Citizens keeping electing the radicals and this is what you get. Gainesville is a dictatorship of the woke social justice unable to run a lemonade stand set.

Jeff Gehmann

Due to its liberal radicalism and governing ideas that criminals are victims of society (Poe and others on commission), thugs continue to love “Gangsville”. A few years back when violent crime was going down almost everywhere, Alachua was the ONLY county in FL that had an increase. Get tough on criminals, enforcement and punishment, it works!

Jason Seitz

I’m sure that’s what the gunman was thinking when he decided to kill some people in Gainesville. He was thinking about the county commissioners here and their stance on crime.

Mlk43611

I wonder what was going on that crowd control was needed.

Beatrice

https://www.bestplaces.net/compare-cities/ocala_fl/gainesville_fl/crime
Their political leanings are quite different and still similar crime rates for violent crimes.

Last edited 1 year ago by Beatrice
Bill Boe

So Gainesville downtown is now the new Chicago; this violence is a product of both GPD and ACSD ignoring enforcement of city laws for years and this city is now a free fire zone~ Anybody can do anything any time of day or night in Gainesville including open prostitution, drug sales, and gun fights~